


Life Half Full

by appending_fic



Category: The Hollow (Cartoon)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Artificial Intelligence, Established Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Identity Issues, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Real Characters - Freeform, References to Depression, Saving the World, Slow Burn, Virtual Clones, Virtual Reality, no love triangles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:49:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 48,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24321571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appending_fic/pseuds/appending_fic
Summary: When Adam gets a text from a man claiming to be him, he writes it off. But the man on the other side of the computer needs help to save an entire world Adam never knew existed. In the process, he begins to question the choices he'd made.
Relationships: Adam/Kai (The Hollow), Adam/Reeve (The Hollow)
Comments: 103
Kudos: 146





	1. Horror/Comfort

**Unknown Number**  
Today

Sorry to bother you. But I need your help. 13:55

Who is this? 13:57

It's a little hard to explain. 13:57  
But I think the easiest way to help you understand is to ask you a question first. 13:57  
Do you remember The Hollow? 13:57

Adam was still staring at his phone two hours later. This wasn't the first time he'd gotten a weird message about The Hollow, but they'd petered out, mostly, by the time he'd left for college. He'd never figured out how to deal with the - fans, or whatever. He couldn't match Mira's level of indifference, or Kai, whose enthusiasm had managed to scare a few of them off. Mostly he'd made a few awkward replies until the questions got intrusive and then blocked them. Part of the problem was how little he wanted to talk about the last game he'd played, which was all anyone wanted to talk about.

(That wasn't true - they wanted to talk about the game after that, but Adam didn't know anything more than what everyone else who'd watched the _last_ game knew.)

And that, maybe, was his out.

**Unknown Number**  
Today

Look, I just played the game. I didn't have anything to do with - whatever happened. 16:05

I know that. 16:06  
Better than most. 16:06  
I'm not here to talk about that game. 16:06  
But it's easier to explain if you remember the game. 16:07  
So. 16:07  
Do you? 16:07

Adam stared at the messages. Something about the text made his chest twitch anxiously, like - when Kai made him watch badly-written horror movies where he knew what would happen and still ended up hiding his face against Kai's shoulder so he didn't have to see the characters' clearly-telegraphed doom.

**Unknown Number**  
Today

Yeah. What...does this have to do with you? 16:10

Do you remember the last game? 16:10  
The Hollow went on hiatus right after that - to 'work out some bugs'. Before they could come back, Hollow Games declared bankruptcy. 16:10

...Gustaf? 16:11

No. 16:12  
My name is Adam Luna. 16:13

"What. The. Fuck," Adam announced to his dorm room.

He shut his phone off rather than risk any further exchanges with the freakshow, or, worse, let something slip that made it easier to find him (although it was probably too late for that, given this stalker already had Adam's number). He resolved not to think about it, a plan that worked so well that when he woke up the next morning, he couldn't remember why he'd turned his phone off in the first place.

It left him with two text messages from Mira, who figured he'd gotten distracted or gone to sleep early, some dozen other texts from other friends, including a reminder about pub night he'd missed, and twenty from Kai. And a voicemail - he hadn't been aware Kai knew _how_ to leave voicemails. He felt a smile tug at the edge of his mouth as he scrolled through the messages. He used to think Kai was clingy - he'd responded to the invitation to join their team with endless strings of texts to the group chat, requests to hang out that got more desperate if Adam or Mira didn't respond to them, and an off-putting tendency to agree with anything they said. Adam had begun to believe whatever he'd actually liked about Kai had been a product of the mind-wipe, like Mira's brief flirtation with - well, Adam.

He knew better, now, and Kai knew that sending three texts to Adam's one wasn't a sign of any secret resentment. Twelve hours of unexpected radio silence _was_ concerning, though.

It was eight in the morning when Adam called back - a little early for Kai to be awake, but the least he could do was leave an actual message so Kai knew he wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere. If Kai had answered on the first ring, Adam would have been certain Kai had stayed up all night panicking. Luckily, he picked up on the third, suggesting he'd been asleep and decided talking to Adam was worth forcing himself up for.

"Adam? Buddy? You alright?" He sounded - well, worried. Adam pushed aside a twinge of guilt.

"What? Yeah," Adam replied. "Sorry - I was trying to shut everything out last night. Shut my phone off. Finals, you know." He _had_ made good progress on the latest revision of his thesis, and his second-to-last round of studying.

"Huh, yeah," Kai said, an odd note to his voice. 

"Are _you_ alright?" Adam asked. He checked Kai's messages, finding no suggestion of any distress.

"Oh - yeah," Kai murmured, voice a little distant. "Just, you're graduating soon."

"Hopefully, yeah," Adam said.

"And you've got that internship," Kai added.

"Yeah, in - oh." Adam had heard back about the internship a week ago, and Kai had seemed happy then - but Adam knew him well enough by now to have expected a delayed freak-out. It was Adam and Mira leaving for college all over again. "It's not like I won't have time to talk to you," he said. "It's a job, not _prison_."

"...I guess," Kai said, if a little doubtfully. 

Adam frowned at the far wall of his room, rubbing at his chest, which felt a little fluttery, lost. He hated trying to navigate these talks about feelings, which usually left him feeling nearly as out of his depth as waking up in an empty room with no memory had.

"You're - we're friends, Kai," Adam tried. "You're a cool guy, and we spend most of our time talking online anyway, so what does it matter if I live-"

"A four and a half hour drive away," Kai supplied, with the speed of someone who'd been thinking about that number a lot.

Adam closed his eyes, biting back a sigh. This was clearly going to be a _thing_ , and he couldn't even argue _he_ wasn't worried about it. Not the _physical_ distance, but the metaphorical distance; there was a divide between college and the real world that felt more solid - wider - than the one between high school and college. And reassuring Kai had never done much for his nerves. The whole question might be something they just had to ride out.

Still, it didn't mean Adam couldn't try to reassure Kai (and him, a little) that they were good enough friends to weather a little distance.

"You know, if I buckle down and work on my papers, I can get everything but some last-minute studying done and we can have a movie weekend, like old times."

"Huh," Kai mused. "Yeah, that sounds cool. Some choice movies, popcorn, pretzels, beer?"

"You're _nineteen_ ," Adam retorted. "I'm not buying you beer."

"My roommate thinks it's a waste I've got a twenty-one-year-old friend if he won't buy me beer," Kai complained.

"I'm not-" Adam started, biting at his lip as he considered his response. He knew Kai was technically an adult, and in any case had at fourteen helped rescue Adam from a tribe of mutant spiders, but it didn't erase Adam's unease when Kai talked about stuff like this - alcohol and drugs and sex - the sort of things that could lead to a sheltered, sweet kid getting hurt because he hoped for the best in people.

" _I_ tell him you're my friend because you're _cool_ , not to get free booze," Kai said, a steady - _proud_ \- tone to his voice.

"Why am I giving you free alcohol in this scenario anyway?" Adam demanded.

"Because you always spring for the snacks on movie night," Kai replied - Adam could almost see his shrug.

And it was true - Kai might pay when they went out to the movies, concerts, the infamous Robots Versus Wrestlers event, but Adam always bought the snacks for movie weekends. He couldn't explain why - Kai could sure as hell afford it, and Adam wasn't about to feel guilty helping Kai mooch off his parents. Just - when Kai, or Mira, or Adam's college friends, came over, it felt right making sure they were taken care of.

"Well, you shouldn't be drinking anyway," Adam said. He held his breath a moment - it was a point of contention with Mira (and, ages ago, Reeve) that he was bossy, controlling, acting like everyone's business was his business. But - Kai _was_ the sort of person who could get in trouble if they drank carelessly.

"I know that, dude," Kai replied, cheerfully. "You said, my first week. I had like - one drink during orientation. I got a little fuzzy and figured I do not need to be, you know, fuzzy, without someone I trust to look out for me."

"O - oh." It was a strange word to use, 'fuzzy', because Adam felt a little fuzzy at Kai's declaration. "That's pretty - smart of you."

"Your idea, dude," Kai said. "So. Movie weekend?"

"Of course," Adam replied. "Now, I need breakfast."

"Ugh," Kai said. "I'll pass. See you at like - lunch or dinner or Wednesday."

"Yeah," Adam agreed.

"Love you, dude."

"Ah. Love you, too," Adam said. _That_ had been a shock the first time he'd said it, but Kai wasn't shy about telling his friends he loved them, and it had been impossible to claim Adam didn't feel the same.

Breakfast was a quiet affair. Adam had missed pub night, but his college friends hadn't, and they preferred peaceful meals to weather their hangovers. Jesse spent the entire meal sprawled next to his tray, nibbling on slices of bacon between low groans. Xiao nursed a glass full of what Adam had once confirmed was mostly full of raw eggs. And Riordan, who had likely matched the other two drink-for-drink, was reading - homework, Adam guessed.

"You're a mutant," Jesse grumbled. "Some sort of hydration-based superpower that keeps you from getting hangovers."

"I drank a glass of water between every shot," Riordan said absently, "and woke up every hour to drink more."

"You're a mutant," Jesse repeated. "You have some sort of weird ability to remain responsible even after six shots of Snake Juice."

"Perhaps," Riordan agreed, swiping at his phone.

"I hate you," Jesse muttered. "You and your stupid mutant foresight."

Riordan just hummed in response.

"What are you even reading?" Jesse asked. "Classes are _over_."

"And I've got a thesis on intellectual property rights to finish, or they won't give me this thing called my 'diploma'," Riordan said.

"Some of _us_ finished those last month," Xiao said.

"Some of us are studying evolving fields," Riordan retorted. "Or did they discover a new time signature in the last week?"

Xiao flipped him off, downing the rest of her drink in the same motion, before she rose to her feet. "I'm getting a bowl of ice cream, because this is the last time in my life I'm going to be able to have ice cream for breakfast."

"So...intellectual property rights?" Adam asked.

"More or less," Riordan said. "I mean, I'm writing about the use of software in the protection of intellectual property rights. In the olden days, companies like Google, Amazon, and Disney used bots to automatically make claims against websites hosting content that violated their intellectual property rights. Nowadays, a bunch of people are suing the HLN Group for using bots to take down that content themselves. The District Courts are divided about whether the Fifth Amendment protects you from corporations, so you can imagine the debates going on now."

He swiped at his phone again, sticking his tongue out at it, and Adam frowned at Riordan. As Adam was studying neither technology nor law, he had no actual idea, but he knew the signs of a conversation that would lead to a lecture if he asked for more information.

"So why'd you bail on pub night?" Jesse mumbled. "Hot date?"

"No?" Adam replied. "I turned off my phone to get some work done."

"We are here for like two more weeks and you're _studying_?" Jesse demanded. "What a waste. I made out with - well, someone, last night, because this is our last chance for this sort of thing." He reached out a hand across the table to take Adam's, twisting his head around to offer a wide-eyed look that usually prefaced an attempt to get his friends to do something they had zero interest in. 

"Put those away," Xiao muttered as she sat next to Jesse. "I have nightmares about green puppy-dog eyes."

"But _Xiao_ ," Jesse wheedled. "Adam is wasting the best years of his life!"

"Hey, just because I decided to get work done instead of make out with random people-"

"Not random people," Riordan said. "Ikram, my Statistical Methods TA."

" _Anyway_ , that was sophomore year," Adam continued. "I'm trying to mellow out here."

"You're not going to get anywhere, Jess," Riordan added. "Adam's trying to set a good example for Edvard."

Jesse raised his head from the table, and one eyebrow. "Edvard? Are you making new friends we don't know about?"

"No, Riordan is a pretentious ass," Xiao muttered, kicking Riordan under the table. "He's talking about Kai."

"Ahh," Jesse said, letting his head fall back down to the table, reaching out to pat Adam's hand. "Your padawan."

"My what?" Adam asked, narrowing his eyes at Jesse, who was tilting his coffee cup in an ill-advised attempt to drink from it without raising his head from the table. Adam couldn't be sure Jesse wasn't making some sort of weird joke, making any inquiry into what he meant a risky endeavor.

"Padawan," Jesse repeated. "His guide, mentor, teacher."

Xiao wrinkled her face, kicking Jesse, if his yelp was any indication. "Stop being weird," she said. "They're gaming buddies from high school, and Adam's looking out for him. It's sweet."

"All _I_ know is dire threats were made about what would happen if I even _thought_ about hooking up with him," Jesse complained. "And I have it on good authority I am missing out."

"Dire threats were made about what would happen if you hooked up with him and ghosted him when you got bored of him, instead of telling him it's over," Riordan corrected. "You decided that was too onerous of a requirement to bother."

" _Anyway_ ," Adam said, cutting through the impending debate (and ignoring the implications of the fact that Jesse had heard enough about Kai that he considered it a loss he'd never had a chance to hook up with him), "I've got a pretty full week trying to get stuff done, and plans next weekend, but I promise we'll get in pub night before - well, graduation, at least."

"At least tell me those plans involve a hot date," Jesse pleaded.

"It's, um, movie weekend," Adam replied. "With Kai."

"God, you're hopeless," Jesse retorted. "Movie nights are for boring married couples or depressed dudes. We are still in the prime of our lives - we should be living it up."

"A single game of The Hollow can last up to seven days," Riordan said, voice mild. "The players retain all memories of their experiences. There are several well-known psychological effects found among those who played it regularly. Post-traumatic stress, difficulty in integrating your in-game thoughts to your core identity, ongoing delusions. The most common effect, however, is an accelerated maturation. From what he's told us, Adam has experienced two years of life more than the rest of us - and those two years were...exciting. It isn't unusual for someone with those sorts of experiences to seek a lifestyle absent that sort of excitement. How many dragons have you killed in your lifetime, Adam?"

"...Sixteen?" Adam guessed.

Riordan gave Jesse a brief smile - close-mouthed, but his eyes, hazel-brown under the cafeteria's lights, were narrow, dull. "So," he said.

Jesse sighed, giving Riordan an exaggerated frown. " _Fine_. I am sorry I implied you're boring for thinking you've had enough excitement in your life."

"People who played The Hollow tend to be close to their teams," Xiao added. "So it's no wonder he warned you off Kai."

"He didn't warn me off _Miranda_ ," Jesse complained.

"Mira," Adam said, "can take care of herself."

Adam had exaggerated his lack of availability for the week; he hated nothing more than to overcommit and be forced to cancel plans with friends. So there were breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with some mixture of his friends in between classes. The few times both Jesse and Kai were around, Adam watched them, and found despite Jesse's overdramatic declarations, he wasn't harboring a deep desire to pursue Kai (Adam wouldn't _mind_ , except that Jesse was careless with people's feelings, sometimes).

Adam and Riordan were at dinner alone Thursday evening when Adam said, "Did you ever play The Hollow? You seem to know a lot about it."

"My mother is a computer engineer," Riordan replied; he was silent a moment, during which Adam wondered if Riordan considered his reply sufficient. "She believed the consequences of device failure outweighed the minimal risks."

"The consequences?" Adam peered at Riordan, whose hand was tight around his fork. Tense. "Didn't the game - back up your brain or something, in case things went wrong?"

"The software _did_ create a digital replica of your memories and personality," Riordan replied. "But if the system failed, the copy is what would survive. Not you." 

"That's...huh." There was, Adam was sure, a thesis-level discussion they could have about this, but Adam was involved in one thesis paper already. And thinking about something going wrong reminded Adam of - the thing that went wrong. Gustaf had insisted they'd been in no real danger (The Hollow game show loved rolling out new content, so the fact Adam had never encountered the glitch in prior games was no indication), but the fear of glitching, of what could have happened, still crept up on Adam in odd moments.

"But you watched The Hollow, I guess, right?"

"Every episode," Riordan replied. "Even the unaired pilot with Onni Hiltunen as the host."

"Wha - who?"

"The internet celebrity Wumskee," Riordan said. "People protested Hollow Games giving him a platform because of his purportedly racist views. Also, he was a lot creepier than Gustaf Mardh."

"Gusta - you mean Weirdie?"

Riordan nodded quickly. "He actually ran a technology blog; he was one of the safety consultants on the show before they asked him to run a test game."

"So you…" Adam drummed at the table with his fingers a moment, considering how to ask the question. Riordan was rarely this animated, so it was hard to know how to respond. "You saw the games I played in."

"Of course."

"You never asked about it."

Riordan shrugged. "I overheard someone asking you about The Hollow during orientation and you said you didn't want to talk about it."

"That's - _you_ could have asked me. After we'd been friends a while, at least," Adam said. Riordan shrugged again, but didn't otherwise reply. Adam bit his lip, trying to consider a follow up to that as Riordan delved back into his macaroni. "Were there any questions you _did_ want to ask me?"

"Was the glitch real?" Riordan asked. "I wouldn't expect Hollow Games to acknowledge something happened during the game that endangered the contestants, but they went bankrupt so soon after your game, and there was a glitch in the next game…"

"I've never been sure one way or another," Adam replied. He offered Riordan a smile he hoped came across as apologetic. "Weir - Gustaf told us it was part of the show, but...I still have bad dreams about it." He looked over at Riordan, who was frowning at his food, biting at his upper lip. "I'm sorry if that isn't what you wanted to hear."

"I wanted to hear your thoughts," Riordan said, clicking his tongue. "You told them to me." He was quiet a moment. "Some people thought you hacked into the game to mess with the next teams of players."

"We didn't," Adam replied. "I actually - was taking a break from playing after our last game. I didn't even see it until the first time someone started grilling me about it." As a veteran player of The Hollow, Adam had a lot of strange experiences, but none quite as surreal as watching himself doing something he had no memory of. Of course, it wasn't _him_ , but Adam, like most frequent players of The Hollow, had integrated enough memories with recordings of his avatar that thinking of it as _him_ was automatic. He didn't engage with the people who quizzed him about their preferred conspiracy theory, because he couldn't divorce himself from the avatar they thought was a CIA bot. "I don't have any answers."

"There's compelling evidence Hollow Games was using their brain scans to experiment with virtual intelligence and used your data to generate an unexpected obstacle that could act almost like a real opponent. There's no mystery."

"You can say that, but everyone's got their own idea of what happened. Aliens, government experiments, and of course, a weird prank me and my friends were playing. Why would we even team up with Vanessa and her crew? She's a sociopath - she decided the whole thing was a game and tried to kill Kai."

"But...it _was_ a game," Riordan said. "You weren't in any danger."

"Yeah, but - how sure would you have to be that you're in a game before you'd try to kill someone?" Adam demanded. He'd had little trouble letting go of the antagonism of the game, realizing that the stress of it pushed people to act in strange ways, but he'd never met anyone who'd gone from zero to murder so quickly. When they'd shaken hands at the end of the game, he'd tried to see some hint of regret in the way she'd looked at Kai, but had seen nothing except the fake grace of people pretending to be okay they'd lost.

"I haven't thought about that much," Riordan said. He rose to look at Adam, hazel eyes steady, assessing. "Edvard thawed them out in that cave. I remember you being against it."

It wasn't quite a judgment, wasn't quite an accusation of hypocrisy, but it left Adam cold, off-balance. He'd thought of it differently, of keeping them out of the way, not sure it was a game, but sure that the world they were in was strange, that maybe the Weird Guy would help them. "I-"

"The general consensus was that you won because she kept her team on a tight leash and you - negotiated."

"We argued," Adam corrected.

"Vanessa didn't allow disagreement. You did. Most people agreed you still would have won if you'd led her team, instead. She would have refused to listen to Miranda and bullied Kai. You had already proven your ability to work with Reeve, and Bernard was similar to Edvard." Riordan smiled at Adam, a quirk of his lips. "Your personality, I think, lends credence to the theory that your avatars that interfered in the next game were a virtual intelligence obstacle - they worked very well together in the final battle."

"Huh," Adam mused. It didn't erase the vague worry that _he'd_ been willing to sacrifice Vanessa and her friends because he sort of thought he was in a game, but it made him feel a little better hearing that his sort-of leadership had helped them win regardless (but he knew Riordan was wrong - Adam would have lost without Mira and Kai. He doubted Vanessa could have won _with_ them, but Adam wouldn't have fared much better with Reeve and someone who hadn't seemed willing to mediate).

Thoughts of The Hollow stayed with Adam for the next day, lingering memories of that last game, of the first awkward steps of what would become his real friendship with Kai, and his certainty that they wouldn't have won without Kai on their side. Adam actually ended up watching old episodes of The Hollow after he finished his thesis - not the games he'd played, but he found highlights of Vanessa's games. It took an hour to realize how differently she'd acted in - every other game she'd played. She'd never guessed it was a game, and while she'd taken control of about half of the dozen or so teams she'd played with, she'd never tried to kill anyone. Two or three times, she'd actually done everything in her power to get everyone out safely, until it became clear only one team could win.

She didn't have a great track record, actually, until she'd teamed up with Skeet and Reeve.

Adam was squinting at a screenshot of Vanessa dangling Kai over the tundra when his phone buzzed. He jumped, staring at the phone for an uneasy moment, heart racing, before leaning over to check the screen.

**Kai**  
Today

dude i'm outside 17:49  
you didn't forget about movie sleepover weekend did you :( 17:51

"Oh, jeez." Adam scrambled up, knocking his chair over as he lunged for the door. When he yanked it open, there was Kai, an inch shorter than Adam still (a little more as he was slouched over his phone), scrawny, glancing up at Adam with dark eyes under shaggy red-brown hair. "Hey, buddy. Sorry, I finished my writing and sort of zoned out." He smiled at Kai, earning a wide, if shaky, smile in response. "Come on in - I _didn't_ forget to get snacks."

"Oh, sure." Kai's smile steadied as he pocketed his phone, stood up straight and stepped into the room. He glanced at Adam's computer and paused mid-step, smile fading. "Adam?"

Adam looked to the screen, which was still paused on the moment before Vanessa dropped Kai. Adam hadn't seen it in real life, which meant it lacked the confused urgency of things he'd actually experienced in the game. But even knowing Kai hadn't been in any danger, Adam had only watched this once - he skipped it any time he found a reason to watch footage from that game. Kai had to know that.

"Sorry," Adam said, stepping over to close the window. "I was just...Riordan and I were talking about The Hollow last night and I started...thinking."

"Oh, yeah. Riordan knows _everything_ about The Hollow," Kai agreed. He set his bag on the table next to Adam's couch and unzipped it. "Now, I know this is a breach of protocol, but my roommate's dad sent him brownies, and he's on a carb cleanse, so… potluck movie weekend?" He lifted out a plastic container full of brownies and smiled at Adam, not his hesitant greeting or the brighter grin when he'd found the weekend was still on, but. Shy. A little more like the first few times Adam had asked to hang out with him - uncertain if he was overstepping, trying to figure out the rules.

"Awesome! I bet these would go great with the ice cream I got. Thanks." Adam picked up his laptop, moving it to the coffee table Mira had made fun of him for buying ("Do you know who buys coffee tables? Nobody - they come pre-installed in suburban homes and sitcom apartments"), next to the popcorn, chips, carrot sticks, and dip. "What do you want to drink?"

"Anything's fine," Kai said, quiet. Adam paused halfway to his mini-fridge to find Kai staring at the brownies, biting his bottom lip. Adam couldn't quite identify his expression - pensive, maybe. Or worried.

"Those aren't, like, marijuana brownies, are they?"

" _No_!" Kai protested, hands flailing as he scrambled onto the couch, leaning over the back to offer Adam a wide, pleading gaze. "I wouldn't drug you against your will."

"Chill, buddy, I know," Adam replied. He retrieved a bottle of root beer and one of ginger ale, setting the former down next to the brownies before taking his seat on the left side of the couch. He grabbed Kai's left hand and tugged him around. "Come on, stop freaking out so we can watch movies." Kai settled on his side of the couch, pulling his hand away from Adam's only when he grabbed the root beer and opened it with a flick of his wrist. Kai threw the cap toward the trash (he missed - he always missed) and wriggled until he was sprawled out next to Adam. He held up his bottle, tilted toward Adam until Adam raised his own to clink the bottles against each other, a delicate 'clink' marking the start of the evening.

"Soo," Adam tried after a moment, "What are we watching?"

"Ah." Kai tapped at the side of his bottle, gaze dropping to the soda. "It's your room - we should watch what you want to. You _hate_ the movies I like."

"I don't _hate_ them," Adam protested. "I mean, I don't watch scary movies to _relax_ , but I like watching terrible horror movies with you."

"Well, if you're _sure_ ," Kai replied, sipping at his root beer, tucking his legs up to rest his bottle against. "I've got two or three movies I've been meaning to watch."

"And what're they about?" Adam asked. "Mutated llamas? Evil rabbits? Killer chickens?"

Kai yelped, jolting his bottle, nearly spilling his root beer as he fumbled with his drink. Once steadied, he pointed at Adam with his bottle, free hand resting flat against his chest. " _Dude_ ," he gasped, " **No**."

"So...scared of chickens?" Adam guessed.

"Shut up," Kai muttered, finishing off his root beer in one swing and crossing his arms across his chest, glaring at the computer. 

Adam nudged Kai's thigh with his foot, earning him a - it wasn't quite a glare, but looked like Kai was _trying_ to. "I bet there's a story there."

"No. This is movie time, not childhood trauma time," Kai said. He leaned over to the computer, clicking through a few sites until he found what he was looking for. "You're not afraid of clowns, are you?"

"...No."

Kai smirked at Adam and winked before returning to his earlier sprawl. "You _will_ be."

Twenty minutes into the movie, Adam was gripping onto Kai's arm, needing the comfort of knowing there was someone here with him. Twenty-five minutes in, Adam screamed and ducked his head to hide it between Kai's shoulder and the couch cushions. It was easier watching these things out of the corner of his eye, pressed up against the solid weight of a real person. He caught a glance from Kai, the other man frowning, worried.

"It's fine," Adam muttered, even if he had to shuffle closer to hide his face _entirely_ from what was happening onscreen twenty seconds later. Kai's chest shifted when he huffed, almost a laugh, but not malicious.

"You're so weird," Kai said fondly (and he always got like this during scary movies - teasing, oddly confident, but nothing cruel).

"Shut up - _you're_ weird," Adam retorted, even if he tucked his legs up so he could curl more comfortably against Kai, certain now this is where he'd need to spend the rest of the night, if the rest of Kai's movies were like this. "Just - watch your weird nightmare fuel."

They were halfway through the fourth movie, pizza and snacks half-devoured, when Kai finally stopped making comments about the movies, his chest shifting gently with his even breaths, and Adam reluctantly stood. Tomorrow (and they _had_ planned a weekend for this), they'd watch better movies - or at least less scary ones, and Adam wouldn't need a comforting shoulder unless something particularly startling happened. It would be fun...just not like horror movie nights.

Adam laid a blanket over Kai before heading to bed himself. It wasn't peaceful, exactly, having Kai sleeping in his room - Kai snorted and muttered in his sleep - but it was nice, especially after a night of horror movies.

Adam dreamed about The Hollow, except all the NPCs were clowns with fanged mouths. Kai wasn't there - it was Mira and Reeve, older, making fun of him for being scared of all the clowns. And for some reason, they never thought to call for Gustaf's help.

When Adam woke, both his keys and Kai were gone. He was familiar enough with this ritual not to worry, as Kai reappeared ten minutes later with coffee and donuts (well, caramel-flavored milk with coffee in it, and something that Adam was certain was basically a chocolate milkshake).

"I got breakfast!" Kai declared, shaking the box of donuts. 

Adam swiped his coffee first, smiling as much as he could (not much) after just waking up. "Thanks, buddy." He took a long draught, humming at the pleasant warmth of the drink. When he looked down, Kai was watching him, smiling gently. "What's up?"

Kai looked away, returning to the side of the couch to set down the donuts and his own drink. "Nothing. Just - I'm glad you're my friend."

"Aww, dude." Adam closed in on Kai, grabbing him around the shoulder and pulled him close, holding that position for just a few moments. "I feel the same way. You're awesome."

"Ah." Kai ducked his head away, cheeks pink. "I - thanks, you're-" He shrugged before slumping in Adam's grip. "Thanks."

"Well, now that we've got food, coffee, and feelings, let's get down to business," Adam declared, letting go of Kai and dropping onto the couch. When Kai didn't immediately follow, Adam patted Kai's side of the couch. "Come on, buddy - time's a-wasting."

Kai sat gingerly across from Adam, snagging his drink to cradle it against his chest. "So what are we watching?"

"It's Saturday morning," Adam replied. " _Cartoons_."

Several hours of cartoons left Adam relaxed, sprawled across one side of the couch. Kai was leaning against the other arm of the couch, legs stretched out to tangle with Adam's, snickering at every joke, even the dumb ones. They'd traded in their coffees for soda - grape for Adam and something called Irn Bru that tasted like nails for Kai - and they'd ordered pizza. Adam was in a _good mood_.

And then Kai's phone buzzed. He glanced at it, and his whole body went tense as he frowned at the screen.

Adam felt a chill, and pulled himself up. "Kai? What's wrong?"

"It's - weird," Kai said haltingly, picking up his phone, scrolling through something as his frown deepened.

" _You're_ weird," Adam retorted. "Come on - you don't have to, but you can tell me-"

"No, it's _weird_ ," Kai repeated. He took a steadying breath before handing the phone to Adam. "It might be best if you see it yourself."

Adam wasn't sure what he was expecting to find - Kai's parents, some sort of internet arguments, or what. So when he saw the screen, he blurted, "What the _fuck_?"

**Kai (Not Me)**  
Today

hey dude. i know you said you'd sleep on it 12:13  
but we need your help and you're sort of our last chance 12:13  
help me edvard diertkai you're my only hope 12:13


	2. Tears/Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam hurts Kai's feelings and tries to figure out what it means there's a copy of him out there, in that order.

"Let me get this straight-" Adam started, and Kai snorted. He glared at Kai, who just snickered. " _Let me be clear_ ," Adam said through gritted teeth. "Last week you got a text from a guy claiming to be you - to be Edvard Diertkai, going by Kai, like you - and instead of ignoring him or calling the cops or any number of sensible things, you kept talking to him?"

"I…" Kai pulled one knee in against his chest, scratching his bare calf.

"He could be dangerous - he's _definitely_ delusional - you can't _encourage_ people like this-"

"Yeah. I get it," Kai replied. "I'm sorry." His voice was odd, and when Adam looked at him, Kai had his head resting on his knee, staring at the couch cushions. He looked small, his pose, his demeanor reminiscent of their video chats during Kai's senior year, when Kai had grown increasingly withdrawn, quiet, and - dispassionately agreeable.

His parents had gotten divorced that year, and Kai nearly hadn't graduated.

Adam couldn't imagine why Kai was acting this anxious, when it was just the two of them. Kai hadn't been stressed lately, except by Adam's impending graduation, which this whole weekend was supposed to help with, and would have, if Kai hadn't been texting some internet creep.

...If Adam hadn't been yelling at Kai for texting some internet creep.

Adam slumped back against the couch, feeling sick. He'd admittedly been a dick when they'd been only teammates, not friends, but he'd gotten over it; he'd become Kai's friend. He wasn't supposed to upset Kai like this.

"Don't be," Adam said. "Sorry. I mean - obviously, what you've been doing is dumb, but. I'm not _mad_. I'm worried." Adam reached out, resting a hand on Kai's knee; he counted it as promising that Kai didn't flinch away. He counted it as a loss that Kai still wasn't looking at him.

"Look, I'll stop it, just-"

" _I'm not mad_ ," Adam repeated. He squeezed Kai's knee, which at least got Kai to look at him. Unfortunately, Kai's eyes were shiny - teary at the edges, an expression Adam was certain Kai had spent most of that senior year keeping Adam from seeing. In a different circumstance, knowing Kai trusted Adam enough to let Adam see this moment of weakness would have pleased him (obviously, he'd be bummed knowing Kai was upset, but Miles was at MIT, so Kai needed support from other sources willing to offer it easily). In _this_ circumstance, however, that expression was on Kai's face because of Adam, which meant Adam had done something terribly wrong.

He'd shouted at Kai. He'd made him _cry_.

Which meant emotions were back on the table if Adam wanted any chance to fix this. "Like - you know Reeve, right? I mean, obviously, but you remember we were friends for like - ever. We argued. A lot. And I had to yell a lot, just to be heard. And when I get emotional - I feel like I'm still arguing with him." He squeezed Kai's knee again, watching until Kai gave a small nod. Adam took a deep breath, because talking wasn't the easy way (the easy way was brushing this whole thing off and just acting the same around Kai, like he hadn't hurt him). "And when I found out you've been talking to a stranger on the internet pretending to be you - I panicked. I just got worked up thinking of all the bad shit that might happen to you and...that's just not an option."

Kai raised an eyebrow, still, apparently, not up to talking, but Adam could read the question in it anyway.

"You getting hurt. Bad stuff happening to you. It's not an option. So I'm _sorry_. I wasn't thinking. I don't want to upset you, but I did. So. Yeah."

Kai was quiet in response, and for a moment, Adam, tense, chest tight, wondered if this was going to be it - the end of their friendship. Or if, worse, Kai would become that quiet, distant person only his parents had heretofore brought out in him. And then Kai's hand rested on the one grabbing his knee, and squeezed. He was still quiet, but his hand remained on top of Adam's - a promising sign. He was also staring at Adam, a disconcerting focus he'd never really seen on Kai. In the wake of Kai's gesture, Adam might not have been _worried_ , but he was tense, uncertain what to expect from Kai.

And then Kai grinned before flopping over to Adam's side of the couch to fling his arms around Adam's torso in a vice-like grip. Something eased in Adam at that, as he twisted around enough to return the embrace, even if it left Kai's face squashed against his stomach. They stayed that way for a few minutes, Adam because he needed some reassurance he hadn't screwed up royally, and Kai probably because he was touch-starved.

And Adam wanted to put off the impending argument as long as possible.

So it was unsurprising that Kai was the one who eventually pulled back, a frown on his face (at least it was a real expression, instead of the flat one he'd had before).

"So…" Kai started.

"I think it's a bad idea talking to him," Adam said. "It's creepy that he knew how to find you, and with him pretending to be you-"

"He _is_ me," Kai insisted, paused, biting at his lip. "I mean. Sort of. It's complicated."

"Compli - it's _impossible_ , is what it is," Adam retorted, clenching his teeth to keep from shouting, because he didn't know what else to do, if Kai were getting dragged into this freak's delusion.

"It isn't," Kai said. "He explained, and proved it-"

"By telling you details about your life or something? All that proves is he's a - stalker-"

"He knew my time-travel code," Kai said.

And Adam stumbled, something about the declaration sending him off balance. "Your what?"

"My _time travel_ code," Kai repeated, rocking back in place on the couch. "You know, the code you plan to use if you're ever time-traveling to prove that you're really you to yourself?"

"Time - is he claiming to be from the future?" Adam was trying to keep a handle on things, but time travel was stumbling so far outside his comfort zone he didn't know what to ask, didn't know what the problems were, how to keep Kai safe.

"Well, no," Kai replied. He tugged his legs up, looping his arms around them, but didn't look upset, just...thoughtful. "Did you ever watch the last episode of The Hollow? With Iris, Nisha, and Tyler? Where they kept finding our avatars running around, interfering in their game?"

Adam nodded. There was an odd thought in his mind, which wouldn't have occurred to him if he hadn't talked to Riordan earlier in the week. But he wasn't about to vocalize it; he needed to hear what the guy texting Kai had told _him_.

"It was us."

Adam's breath hitched. "What? Did they erase our memories again?"

"Well, no." Kai clicked his tongue. "It's not - I shouldn't have said it was us. They're - The Hollow scanned our brains when we started the game, made copies in case the mind wipe went wrong. Hollow Games kept all that data in a - digital repository. Except when it scanned _our_ brains-"

"The glitch?" Adam asked.

"It wasn't part of the game," Kai agreed. "It corrupted the game data, and when the game tried to save our copies, they gained - awareness."

It sounded ludicrous, like something out of a bad sci-fi movie, or a decent TV series. But Kai's gaze was steady, fixed on Adam's face, and he wasn't good at playing jokes straight. He believed what he was saying, at least.

"And...the fake Kai called you?"

"Everyone reached out to their counterparts," Kai said. "I'm just the only one who didn't block them, ignore them, or call the cops." He grabbed his phone, swiping at it, his gaze dropping away from Adam and to the screen. "And they - they're real, Adam. Just - digital. Virtual."

And maybe Kai believed it. Maybe his digital clone had been convincing. But Adam - couldn't. He shook his head, refusing to look at Kai's earnest gaze. "This is - weird, Kai. I don't know how this guy figured out your code or whatever, but this isn't real."

Kai pulled back, hands tightening around his phone as he kept his head down. "I'm not lying," he said.

"I don't think you are," Adam replied. "But it doesn't mean this - digital Kai or whatever is telling the truth, either. He could be _anybody_. He could have gotten lucky with your code."

"Do you think I don't know that?"

Kai's voice was uncharacteristically quiet, and when Adam looked to him, Kai was still staring at his phone. It took Adam a moment to place the expression, because he'd never seen it on Kai's real face.

Kai was angry.

"I'm not stupid. I didn't believe him just because he knew a stupid code. I know there are bad people out there, that there are people who can't distinguish fantasy and reality. That there are manipulative people and delusional people and people who can just be jerks. I've met a lot of them. I asked questions. I thought about it. I did _research_. And I thought - you'd trust my judgment. You'd trust me."

Kai didn't sound sad or disappointed. It was just - Anger. Frustration. Resignation and disappointment, Adam was used to seeing on Kai when he was upset. Kai's anger, unfamiliar and unexpected, unnerved Adam; he knew how to apologize or comfort, but not how to face this new reaction.

"Kai, I-"

"This is just like when decided I wasn't good enough to date your friends!" Kai snapped, one hand clamped around his phone, the other clenched in his lap. His eyes were fierce, wide, gaze fixed on Adam. "You went behind my back and told them not to go out with me."

Two or three half-formed thoughts ran through Adam's mind, which is why his reply was, "How - what - _who_?"

"I was at a Halloween masquerade party last year," Kai muttered. "Met a cute guy who _freaked out_ when he realized who I was. He said if I ever told you we'd - whatever - you'd kill him."

"I didn't-" Adam protested, stomach fluttering anxiously at the thought of Jesse - the only person he'd threatened away from Kai - repeating an all-too-familiar pattern with Kai, vanishing after a night, or a week, or a month together, because he didn't want to get tied down this early in his life, and thought the talking part of it was too hard. "It was just Jesse," he concluded. "Because he's not good with - considering other people's feelings, and I didn't want you to-"

"I'm not a _child_!" Kai growled. "I can decide for myself if I want to drink or eat pot brownies or have an ill-advised hookup with a jerk."

"I'm just trying to protect you!" Adam's chest was tight, pained; he didn't understand what had brought them to this point, how caring about Kai had upset him, when it was his parents _not_ caring that had fucked him up as a kid.

"I can take care of myself," Kai said through gritted teeth.

"I'm sure you can," Adam replied, "but I just - hate seeing you hurt. Like - your senior year in high school, when your parents were getting divorced, and you-" He bit off the words, unwilling to talk about that year more than necessary. "So what's wrong with - trying to keep that from happening?"

Kai was still looking at Adam. His hands were still clenched in his lap. But the fists were loose, and the tension in his face slack. He blinked and swiped at his eyes, hand coming away wet. And then he smiled.

"You're a dumbass," he murmured. "A _sweet_ dumbass, but still." He reached out, snagged Adam's elbow and pulled him in for a hug, and Adam, wrung out from the exchange, grabbed the back of Kai's shirt and just held on. it was at least five minutes, by Adam's reckoning, before Kai untangled Adam's hands and pulled back. He was still smiling. 

"I don't want to get hurt, either. But - you can't see the future. You can't - know when I'm going to get hurt. Unless you've been keeping some _big_ secrets." He smirked and gave Adam's shoulder a gentle punch. "Look - if you tell me it's dangerous to jump off a bridge, I'll listen. But. I want the _choice_."

"The choice. To jump off a bridge."

"It's a metaphor!" Kai protested. "I don't - need you to keep me from jumping. I...need you to catch me when I fall."

"But." Adam bit his lip, trying to imagine it. Telling Kai the risks, letting him choose, letting him fall. It wasn't a good feeling, but better, he thought, than what this morning had nearly done to the two of them. He sighed, letting his shoulders drop. "I guess I can do that." His phone buzzed, announcing the arrival of their pizza. "You hungry?"

"Hoo, yeah," Kai agreed, rubbing his stomach. "I'll get us some soda."

It took a few minutes of eating before Adam found the mental footing to ask. "Okay, since I'm trusting your judgment here, what does your virtual clone want?"

Kai, mouth full of pizza, held up a hand, chewing, and once his mouth was clear, shrugged. "He - well, and the rest of our clones - want us to find Weirdy."

"Gustaf?" Adam asked. "They're virtual, digital, clone things, right? Can't they just use the internet?"

"There's...a lot of complications," Kai replied. He took another big bite of pizza, allowing a moment of silence before he continued. "First, _obviously_ they tried that first. But they think he's gone off the grid. There was a whole - lawsuit thing when Hollow Games went bankrupt. Weirdy...sort of hacked the Hollow Games' servers and destroyed their next planned release in order to get our clones out of Hollow Games' hands. So to speak. There was some sort of out-of-court settlement no one can figure out the terms of, and no one's seen Gustaf since." He downed a draught of his gross soda before shrugging. "I asked Riordan, because he's a bigger fan of The Hollow than either of us, but he didn't have any idea, either."

"So…" Adam decided to take a bite of pizza, to chew as he tried to piece it together, or at least ask a question that didn't make him sound like an idiot. He eyed his own phone, remembering something Kai had mentioned before the shouting match. "You said - there were clones of all of us, and they all called us?"

"Apparently," Kai replied, "my clone sort of held out to last." He smiled, expression crooked. "He must have known I'd ask him like a million questions about - everything."

"So...if I got a text from a guy claiming to be Adam Luna, it's probably _my_ clone?"

"Yeah, of course!" Kai grinned, scrambling over Adam to grab his phone, shifting back, and then pausing, frowning thoughtfully at him. "You didn't tell him to go to hell, did you?"

"No!" Adam ducked his head. "I've been ignoring him."

"Better than Vanessa, at least. Kai - Digital Kai-"

"This is going to get old," Adam muttered.

Kai shrugged. "Probably. But it seems a little rude to call them clones or copies when they're - their own people, just with the same names as us."

"But you said they _are_ clones," Adam protested. "They aren't their own people, by - definition."

"No, we totally talked about this!" Kai said, perking up to his full height (minus his legs), smiling easily, excited. "Sure, they have the same memories as us right up until the end of our game, but after that - well. We - the real - um. _Material_ people, didn't have the same experiences as they did. From the way Digital Kai talked, I don't think he's as close with - Digital Adam as we are. And I think he and Digital Vanessa worked through whatever was up with real - Material Vanessa during the game."

And as worrying as Adam found the thought of Kai spending time with a woman who'd tried to kill him, it didn't leave him feeling quite as adrift at the casual mention of him and Kai not being close. He'd lost one good friend in his life, and it. Hadn't been fun, even if he'd gotten Kai as a friend (and, by association, Mira's little brother) out of it. But at the same time, knowing Digital Adam was different from him made Adam feel less anxious about the existence of the clone. So Adam tugged his phone out of Kai's hands and unlocked it, returning to his message history. And there it was, the conversation with Digital Adam.

Kai was suddenly hovering, peering at the messages over Adam's shoulder. In other circumstances, Adam might have objected, but there was so little in the conversation, much less anything incriminating.

"What're you doing?" Kai asked.

"Touching base with Digital Adam," Adam replied. "Obviously, Digital Kai's gotten you caught up on what's going on, but if he's anything like _you_ , he's freaking out because he's alone in whatever 'save the day' bullshit they need Gustaf for."

He shrugged and glanced back down to his phone, changing the unknown contact name to 'D-Adam', earning an approving hum from Kai.

**D-Adam**  
Today

Yeah. 12:49  
I do. 12:49  
Sorry about waiting so long to respond. 12:50  
I was sort of freaking out because I thought you were a stalker or something. 12:51  
But - my Kai set me straight. 12:51  
...So to speak. 12:51

Wow. 12:51  
Did you steal Adam's phone, Kai? 12:52  
I mean real 12:52  
Damn it. 12:52  
This is like half the reason we never talked to you. 12:52  
Deciding how to refer to each other. 12:53  
Calling your world 'real' is the quickest way to start a fight around here. 12:53  
Ji-Min started calling our corner of reality the Digital World. 12:53  
Which has unfortunately stuck. 12:53

Look, not that I don't find this glimpse into an alternate reality fascinating. 12:54  
But Kai said you needed help. 12:54  
To find Weirdy? 12:55

Oh thank god. 12:55  
Please tell me you found him. 12:55  
Things are getting a little hairy in here. 12:55

"What...exactly do they need Gustaf _for_?" Adam asked Kai, who shrugged.

"Help, obviously."

"From a guy who's gone off the grid?" Adam glanced back at his phone, trying to find some sign that anything was...off about Digital Adam. "I don't want to sound, like...whatever you call racist for digital clones, but. Are we sure they aren't. Evil?"

"Artificial intelligence turning against humanity?" Kai rolled his eyes. "That's twentieth-century thinking. Besides, they're _human_." He leaned against Adam's side, elbowing him. "You could just ask. He's _you_ , more or less."

Adam frowned at his phone, considering the suggestion. On one hand, if Digital Adam were evil, asking the question would alert him to Adam's suspicions. On the other - if he didn't ask, Adam would wonder. He wouldn't trust their intentions until he heard what they were.

**D-Adam**  
Today

Why do you need to find Gustaf? 13:05

Oh man. One of the hard questions. 13:06  
He helped us escape The Hollow. 13:06  
He gave us a world - a server - where we could exist in peace. 13:06  
Sort of. 13:07  
Until recently. 13:07

Problems with computer viruses? 13:07

… 13:08  
That's a terrible joke; I think you might be spending too much time with Kai. 13:08

I'm not swooping into your dms and criticizing _your_ choice of friends. 13:09

Fine, sorry. 13:09  
It's not a 'virus'. 13:10  
It's an artificial intelligence. 13:10  
It's attacked some of my friends. 13:10  
It killed one of them. 13:11

Kai, still peering over Adam's shoulder, hissed in shock.

**D-Adam**  
Today

Who? 13:12

No one you knew. 13:12  
We're not the only digital intelligences out there. 13:12  
But the only human ones are players of The Hollow. 13:13

Other intelligences? 13:13  
Like AI's developed by labs or the government? 13:14

Something like that, yeah. 13:14  
We've been trying to protect our friends. 13:15  
And we're pretty sure Gustaf can help us figure something out. 13:15

Well, we can't promise anything. But now that we've talked, I wouldn't want anything to happen to you. 13:16

:D 13:16

"Aww," Kai said. "That's cute. You should use more emoticons."

"W - what?" When Adam turned, he unbalanced Kai, forcing him to scramble back. Kai was grinning, though, a slightly crooked expression, eyes crinkled at the corners. He poked at Adam's leg with his foot, grin widening.

"They give your messages a playful air," Kai replied. "Make it easier to tell what you're feeling when I can't see your face."

"O - oh. That's good to know." Adam fell silent, uncertain how to respond further to that.

"Sooo, are we helping the digital folks?" Kai asked, poking Adam again.

" _You_ can decide for yourself," Adam replied. "But I think we should."

But finding Gustaf was easier said than done. The first thing Adam did was call Mira, who met him for lunch the next day. She watched him through a hooded gaze as he sat across from her.

"So. You have something to tell me?" she prompted.

"Yeah. But first - have you been getting weird texts lately?"

"Weird like how?" Mira asked.

"Like from someone named Miranda Everett?"

Mira, who had taken a sip of her coffee, spat it out, choking. "How did you-" She shook her head, resting a hand on the table to steady herself before narrowing her eyes at Adam. "You got a weird text, too."

"So did Kai. And I bet if you asked your boy Skeet, he'd tell you he did, too."

"I did, and he didn't," Mira replied, sipping at her coffee. When she set down the cup, she gave Adam a level stare, quiet for nearly a minute; he shifted anxiously at the continued intensity of the gaze. She was assessing, but what exactly, he couldn't tell. At last, she shook her head. "I blocked the number. Don't tell me-"

"Kai talked to the dude texting him, and. I'm - trusting his instincts that they're legitimate."

"Legitimate _how_?" Mira demanded. "They can't be us unless-" Her irritation faded away to a wide-eyed expression, mouth pursed in shock. "The Hollow. They copied our _brains_." Her shock gave way almost immediately to a scowl. "We should _sue_."

"They're not like Hollow Games employees," Adam replied. "They're-" He waved his hand, trying to phrase some of the explanation Digital Adam had given. "Well, they escaped Hollow Games' control, because I don't think the company was treating them well."

"Shock," Mira said, with a slow roll of her eyes.

"And anyway, Riordan says the contract our parents signed so we could go on The Hollow allowed Hollow Games to use our brain scans for software development research, so we wouldn't have much of a grounds to sue, even if Hollow Games still existed."

"Get a good enough lawyer, and we could probably sue the HLN Group - they bought up all Hollow Games' assets when the company went bankrupt."

"We don't - suing them isn't really the issue," Adam said. He grabbed Mira's hand, hoping it would ground her - she could get lost in her train of thought without some form of distraction. "There's like an evil AI hunting them on the internet. It killed one of their friends."

"Deleted," Mira corrected. She clicked her tongue, frowning as she thought. "I'd have made backups, if I were them." She shook her head suddenly. "Whose brain are _they_ a scan of?"

"The way Adam was talking I think it's like a real AI - developed in a lab or something. Just going all evil, killing innocent digital clones and other AIs."

Mira lay her forearms on the table and leaned in, the focused look back on her face, brown eyes almost scrunched into an expression of concern. "They're not telling us everything," she concluded.

"So?" Adam had known Mira was going to be a hard sell on this issue - it was why he'd told Kai to leave it to him. Mira might respond to Kai's faith and enthusiasm, but Kai might instead run straight into her skepticism, like Adam was. "Even if we're them, we're sort of strangers. We're like - friends who knew each other most of their life and haven't seen each other for five years, like us and Reeve."

"...Yeah," Mira agreed, shrugging as her gaze fell away from Adam. "Like that."

"So we can't expect them to tell us everything right off the bat. What they did tell us is they need to find Weirdy - Gustaf Mardh."

"Good luck," Mira snorted. "Fans of The Hollow have been trying to track down Weirdy ever since the game got cancelled. And if your new disembodied hacker friends can't find him, I bet it's because he doesn't have any internet presence at all."

"...So, any ideas?"

Mira sighed, and flipped their hands around, tugging at Adam's until he met her gaze. "This is obviously important to you, and given the sixteen texts I've got from him, important to Kai, too. But this is - an impossible task. Finding a guy who's been doing nothing but hiding for five years? I have no idea how to _start_ , and…"

Once he realized Mira was building up to a rejection, Adam decided there was only one choice left - the nuclear option. He opened his eyes as wide as possible and - thought about disappointing Kai. His eyes started tearing up and chin quivered of its own accord. Mira jerked back, yanking her hands up to cover her eyes.

" _Dude_ , that is not fair!" she snapped. "You can't just break out the puppy-dog eyes because-"

"I've been talking to - Digital Adam, and...they're _us_ , Mira. Sure, they had different lives, had to fight a team of The Hollow players to survive past the first week or so of their existence, but." His voice tripped up near the end of the sentence, finding the thoughts of something bad happening to Digital Adam, to Digital Kai, was legitimately upsetting. "Digital Mira's like - what you would have become if you got dumped into a magical universe for _real_. Would you honestly be able to live with yourself if you just stood around while she got killed by an evil AI?"

Mira moved her hand away from her eyes and, when she saw Adam's face, sighed, letting her expression settle into something somewhat neutral. "No," she concluded. "But I still have _no_ idea what to do. I'm not equipped to find missing persons; I'm not studying for a degree in - criminology or psychology or social media. If we're going to do this, we need help."

"...From a criminology or psychology major you know and never mentioned to me?"

Mira raised her palm and wiggled it a little. "Sort of. Except you do _know_ him." She smiled a little weakly. "Admittedly, he's at UCLA, so if we're going to do anything like a life-changing roadtrip, it'll need to wait like a week for everyone's finals to end."

"Wait. UCLA. Someone I know…" Adam squinted carefully at Mira, whose smile was wavering. Nervous. "When did you start talking to Reeve again?"

"I don't know - a year, year and a half ago?"

The flare, the hitch in Adam's chest, was immediate - the hurt left over from Reeve's betrayal years ago. And without Reeve there, Adam only had one outlet for that anger.

"And were you just going to keep this secret forever?" Adam demanded. "Sneaking around my back with a guy who-"

"Who got sick of fighting with you all the time!" Mira snapped. "News flash, _I_ got sick of the two of you fighting all the time!"

"What, you're on _his_ side?"

Mira growled, one hand twisting on the table next to her. "There aren't _sides_ here, Adam; it's been five years since he stopped playing The Hollow with us, and nearly as long since The Hollow has existed. And you want to know why I didn't tell you? Because I didn't want to get in the middle of your arguments again!" She shoved her tray aside and pointed at Adam. "And the only reason I'm telling you now is because he's the only person I can think of who can help with _your_ quest. So from where _I'm_ sitting, it looks like I'm on your side, as long as _you're_ willing to work things out with Reeve."

Adam scowled at the table. Mira was rehashing an argument they'd had on and off over the last four years, the only one that they'd never resolved. Because he got what Mira meant, but the thought of talking to Reeve again, of trying to rehash the old fights, Reeve's departure, and his bloodthirsty behavior in the last game, made him preemptively tired, already imagining the shouting that would come with it.

"I'm not going to make you talk to him right now," Mira said, "but whatever's going on, you might need to, eventually. So, you know, maybe practice what you're going to say when the time comes."

"Fine," Adam muttered. "Just don't expect us to be friends."

He spent the rest of the day finishing his thesis, and studying for final exams, enough that he couldn't give much thought to Digital Adam or his friends, only acknowledging a text he got from Digital Adam, thanking him for getting Reeve in touch with his digital counterpart. Kai, of course, ignored the fact he was supposed to be studying, sending Adam messages throughout the night; he welcomed them, even as he chided Kai for ignoring his own studies.

The week passed uneventfully - Adam had studied enough, so he just tried to relax. Kai, apparently doing the same, kept texting Adam about the movies he was watching about hackers and AI. The evening before Adam's last final, Kai, who'd finished his own that morning, showed up at Adam's dorm with two bags of takeout. He grinned at Adam, lifting one bag to shake it under Adam's nose, the scent of garlic, ginger, and a host of other spices wafting from the bag.

"I brought Indian food," Kai said (unnecessary, after flaunting the unmistakable scent at Adam), before strolling in and dropping the food on Adam's coffee table. He was still smiling when he looked back at Adam, but it faltered, slightly, in the face of Adam's silence. "Um. If it's okay? You said you've been trying to relax, and it's your last final tomorrow, so I figured-"

"No, that's great," Adam said, darting to his mini-fridge to grab drinks. "I was just surprised; I usually supply the snacks."

"Yeah, well…" Kai shrugged. "Things are changing, right? So maybe we can mix things up, too."

"Hm." Adam dropped onto the couch and handed out a bottle to Kai. "If you want - I won't complain about free food."

The two of them spent a few minutes eating. Kai paused first, turning to his phone as Adam continued eating. Kai was smiling at his messages when Adam finished and nudged him with his foot.

"What're you looking at?" Adam asked.

Kai's cheeks darkened as he set his phone aside. "It's nothing," he murmured.

Adam tried not to let Kai's obvious lie upset him; getting into another argument just before Adam had to leave wouldn't make maintaining any sort of long-term relationship easier. So instead he took a steadying breath. "If you're going out with Jesse or something, I won't judge."

"I-" Kai's flush darkened as he rolled his head back to stare at the ceiling. "It's not that. I'm talking with Digital Kai," he admitted. "We're not _dating_ -"

"I might judge you if you were," Adam said, earning a sort of barking laugh from Kai.

"Well we're not - I'm not my type. It's just nice talking to someone who really gets me, you know?"

"Yeah," Adam agreed, even if he couldn't imagine bonding with his digital counterpart, talking to someone who knew all his flaws and shortcomings, and hated them as much as Adam did. Kai, though, would flourish talking to someone who knew his foibles and triggers, understood what it meant to grow up provided for but not cared for. "You said Digital Kai isn't close to me. Who _does_ he spend his time with?"

"Mira, of course. Miles...Vanessa."

"You said they worked through their - whatever, you didn't say he was cozying up to a woman who tried to drop you - him - to his death," Adam growled.

Kai shrugged. "Well, he is. That's what working stuff out meant. The game was pretty intense for them." He paused, folding his arms around himself. "Skeet died. And…" He shook his head. "Digital Kai told me there's some stuff he can't talk about - things he learned about the digital versions that apply to the material ones, too."

"He doesn't want to spill the _Material_ Vanessa's secrets if she can't tell him it's okay," Adam concluded. "I can respect that." He sank a little further against the couch. "Is there anything interesting you _can_ tell me about?"

"Digital Mira's got a girlfriend who's an AI," Kai replied. "Like, not a copy of a human brain, but a real AI."

Adam felt his face scrunch up as he considered that. "I think 'real AI' is an oxymoron."

"No, she's pretty smart," Kai replied, snickering. Adam considered kicking him, but the meaningless gossip and dumb puns were nice, no talk of the future or the evil AI hunting their digital counterparts. "Digital Kai said she started life as a fanfiction archive, but he might be messing with me."

"How - you know what, never mind." Adam could barely keep up with the existence of AIs - he wasn't going to think too hard about how you made them. "Um. Did he mention what's up with me? I know they aren't close, but-"

Kai nudged Adam's leg with his foot. "I didn't mean they never talk. They just aren't BFFs like we are. Like I said, Digital Kai and Digital Vanessa really bonded, so they hang out a lot, and Digital Adam's got his _boyfriend_..."

"Another fanfiction archive?" Adam retorted.

"...Nnnooo," Kai drew out, grimacing. "I maybe shouldn't have told you that."

"That Digital Mira is bisexual? Material Mira is bi, too-"

"No, that Digital Adam's dating Digital Reeve."

"...What."


	3. Favors/Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam thinks too much about what might have been. There is a road trip.

"Oh my god, I knew what it was going to be like, doing you a favor, and yet here we are," Reeve grumbled through the phone. "I said I'd get to this after my thesis presentation, so you can wait a couple of fucking hours, okay?"

"I didn't-" Adam paused, exhaling steadily to calm himself, before continuing. "I wasn't calling about that."

"You expect me to believe you just decided to call to catch up after _years_ of not talking, coincidentally right after I agreed to take a look into tracking down TV's The Hollow's Weird Guy for you?" Reeve was good at sarcasm when he got annoyed; he was good at anger, too, but maybe he'd been working on his temper.

"It's not _coincidental_ , but, yeah," Adam agreed. "I just realized that - maybe we're old enough to - bury the hatchet or whatever."

"Hah," Reeve scoffed. "Mira's making you do this, isn't she?"

"No, jeez!" Adam snapped back. "Why can't you believe I just want to - _talk_ to you again? We used to be friends-"

"Until you decided to do the whole control freak thing. You know, I _heard_ your little talk about whether you had any say in keeping me on the team we formed _together_."

"I…"

Adam hadn't known, but the revelation explained a lot. Even back then, Reeve's abandonment of their team, of them, had seemed out of character. Leaving before he could get kicked out, though - _that_ was Reeve all over.

"Don't sprain yourself over there," Reeve sneered.

"I thought - you and Mira worked this out or whatever-"

"Yeah, don't tell me you're still using Mira to fix all your problems - does she break up with guys for you so you don't have to have the talk with them?"

" _Dammit_!" Adam shouted. "I'm trying to make an _overture_ here - trying to reconnect, and you're just - as insufferable as you were since I met you! So thanks for your help or whatever, but fuck off."

Adam threw his phone at his couch and growled wordlessly. He wished some days that there was a way to make hanging up angrily more satisfying, or at least less risky for his phone. He followed his phone a moment later to scream into the couch cushions and then lay there for a few minutes. He didn't know what he'd hoped to come out of that conversation, but a continuation of the ten-year screaming match that had been their friendship was not it. A part of him had thought-

Well, it was clear Adam and Reeve _could_ get along, but it was possible only a life-threatening situation provided enough pressure for them to bond.

The only explanation Adam had for what happened next was that, on his own, he made terrible decisions.

That, and the fact that his father had given him a bottle of what was allegedly a very good bottle of scotch for his twenty-first birthday. Two hours later, Adam had concluded he did not know enough about scotch to judge the quality of the half-empty bottle sitting on his coffee table while he texted Digital Adam.

**D-Adam**  
Today

So 14:59  
Kai spilled the bens 15:01  
Vis a you and reeve 15:02  
Digital reeve no real reeve 15:03  
Fuck 15:03  
Thas offensive isn't it 15:04

A little. 15:04  
But I will give you leeway because you are drunk. 15:04

How dyo know that 15:05

The degradation of your spelling and use of punctuation is a hint. 15:05

Dont have a spy camera in my phone or something? 15:06  
Watching me from my computer 15:07  
Like a nasa agent 15:08  
Plotting to use my inform to skynet all over humanity 15:09  
Yeah, Kai's been watching all teh robot movies 15:10  
If yur actual trying to overthro humanity well be reade 15:11

...Do you actually think we're trying to - Skynet humanity? 15:11  
Or does this have something to do with Reeve? 15:11  
Material Reeve, I mean. 15:12  
I haven't been spying on him through his phone or computer. 15:12  
You either. 15:13

I know 15:14  
Your me 15:14  
More or less 15:15  
Except you're taste in guys 15:16

So this is about Reeve 15:16

Of course it is 15:17  
Hes 15:17  
Reeve 15:18  
But also 15:18  
He's REEVE 15:19

Wow. 15:20  
That would be absolutely incomprehensible if I didn't know you as well as I do. 15:20

What 15:21  
Do you see in him 15:22  
Fuck that sounds mean 15:23  
Obviously he is smart and pretty cool 15:24  
And objoct 15:25  
Actually sort of hot 15:25  
Or at least he was when i was 16 15:26

He still is. 15:27  
But of course we look like The Hollow avatars, 15:27  
And Material Reeve looks like a live human, so. 15:28

Is that weird? 15:29  
It seems like it would be weird 15:30

Well, we've had five years to get used to it. 15:30  
And we update our avatars on our birthdays. 15:31  
But hey, I think we were talking about what I saw in my boyfriend of two years 15:32

Can we pretend i dint say taht 15:33  
Liek a dude insulting m bf id punch them 15:34

Oh? 15:34

Dont oh me i now wh tha means 15:35  
And no i dont have a bf 15:36  
Not all of s can have perfect bfs like reeve apparently 15:37

What 15:37  
Are you jealous? 15:38  
Over a guy you haven't talked to in five years? 15:39

Why do you get a nice gyt 15:40  
Or i assume reeves nice to you cause otherwise ill kick his ash 15:41  
What am i missing about reeve 15:42  
That he and i can work 15:43  
Wen i cant talk for five minutes wo us yelling 15:44  
Howd you do it? 15:45

Get Reeve to date me? 15:45

Get reeve to like you 15:46  
I cant even talk to him 15:47  
Wo arguing 15:48  
And your 15:49  
Youre kissing him 15:50

Full disclosure. 15:50

NO 15:50  
Dont finish that 15:50  
I cant 15:51  
I could have that if you just explained how 15:52

I'm not sure I could tell you how to get anybody except my Reeve. 15:52  
And I'm not sharing. 15:53

Seriously? 15:54  
I just wana know how to talk to him 15:55  
Please dude 15:55  
Im dying here 15:56  
Give me something 15:57  
Anything 15:58

If he were 16, I'd tell you to just fight it out. 16:00  
We sort of fought it out after we found some common ground. 16:01  
But he's five years older. Probably more mature. 16:02  
So 16:03  
You're going to have to be vulnerable. 16:04  
You go in there expecting a fight, and you're going to fight. 16:05

Adam was another drink into the bottle of scotch when Kai texted a moment after knocking at the door.

"It's unlocked!" Adam called.

Kai stepped inside, gaze darting to the bottle on the table, and then the glass in Adam's hand. Adam raised his glass in a toast and took a sip (more like a mouthful). "Evening, my B-F-F! Beff? Buff?"

"Are - you okay?" Kai tried.

"I," Adam drawled, "am fantastic. I had a meaningful conversation with a very smart dude, got some tips on how to deal with my - myriad emotional problems, and drank just over half of a fifth of scotch." He patted the cushion next to him. "Pull up, grab a glass, my man!"

"Um." Kai stepped inside, settling next to Adam, eyeing the bottle for a long moment. "You're not usually this enthusiastic about me drinking."

"Well," Adam replied, scowling when he saw Kai didn't have a glass. He stumbled to his feet and wandered to the shelf where he kept his clean glasses. "You said you feel weird drinking around people you don't trust, but _I_ am a person you trust, ergo."

He handed a glass to Kai when he returned, grinning at Kai before dropping down next to Kai on the couch. Kai, under Adam's watchful gaze, poured out a tiny sip of scotch before falling back, pulling the glass to his chest. Kai looked up at Adam, gaze - hooded, watchful. "So, uh."

"I've been texting Adam. Virtual Adam, not some Adam you've never met. Ha, this would be the worst time to break out a new Adam you've never met. You know I had a serious boyfriend freshman year?" Adam squinted at his now-empty glass, and leaned forward to refill it. When he sat back up, Kai was staring down at the line of scotch in the bottom of his glass.

"Yeah. Russell," Kai muttered.

"And I - liked him, but it was. Wasn't enough," Adam said. He bit his lip, remembering spending three days in his dorm room with only six orders of lo mein and three quarts of ice cream to keep him company. "I sort of - overcorrected - sophomore year." He downed his glass and reached for the bottle, only to find Kai was filling his own glass. Kai tipped the bottle enough to half-fill Adam's glass and tapped his glass against Adam's before settling back down, watching Adam intently. "And - Jesse might like it, bouncing around between people, maybe that's just what he's like. But I'm not like that. I want…" Adam glowered at his drink, spinning it a little, disappointed at the realization he didn't have ice in there to clink together. "What my copy has."

"Reeve?" Kai asked, voice quieter than it had been a moment before.

"I don't have a chance," Adam muttered. "I'm always expecting a fight." He drank at his glass again. "Even with you, I'm always looking - for the next problem. But Digital Adam's - got this wonderful guy, says he's open and honest and vulnerable and shit and I. Am not." Adam frowned at finding his glass empty. "What about you?"

"Ah…" Kai gulped down his drink before slamming the glass down next to the bottle. He was staring at his own feet, now-empty hands twitching in his lap. "It's not that I haven't-"

"You don't look for fights," Adam continued. "You wanted to trust Vanessa, trusted Digital Kai right off the bat. _You_ get nice boyfriends, girlfriends, whatever." He sighed and slumped back against the couch. "I wish…" He huffed, uncertain how to finish that sentence.

"You deserve a nice guy," Kai said, voice trailing off, wistful. 

"No I don't. I am an asshole. I drove away one best friend by being a bossy jerk. I nearly drove another away with all the arguing. I yell at _you_. Digital Adam's got his shit together, though. Got friends, got a boyfriend-"

"Um." Kai drummed his fingers against his knee. "I'm sure you could make up with Reeve if you tried. You're good at apologizing."

Adam snorted; it sounded bad, like he had a lot of practice, but knew there was no way Kai was trying to upset him. "At least we'll be ready if we can't figure out how to help the digital clones." He twisted his head around to smile at Kai. The expression felt fragile, but Kai's returning smile was sincere.

"Nah," Kai drawled. His glass was full again, somehow, and he tilted it toward Adam as he spoke. "We're not going to let them down. _You're_ not going to let them down."

Adam felt his smile steady as he slung an arm over Kai's shoulders, leaning against his friend and smiling against his shoulder. Adam couldn't explain why Kai's expression of faith buoyed his spirits so much - he was prone to baseless optimism and misplaced trust - except that it did.

"I wish…" Adam murmured, the thought fading away even as he tried to complete it.

He woke earlier than he was used to, warmth soaking down to his bones. Adam's pillow moved beneath him; he shifted, moving slowly, eyes opening to blearily take in his surroundings, to find he was on the couch, the moss-green fabric pressed against his back. And sprawled beneath him, squirming to lever Adam's torso off his legs, was Kai. When Kai saw Adam was awake, he gave Adam a shaky smile.

"Hey, uh, sorry, but I sort of need to pee," Kai said.

"Ah. Right." Adam pushed himself off of Kai, sitting cross-legged to watch Kai as he stumbled up and to the door. He winced when his head pulsed with a dull ache, a hangover that was the price of falling asleep on top of Kai instead of remembering to drink some water before going to sleep (And maybe Jesse was right, that Riordan had a super power). The previous night was a little fuzzy; he knew they'd been talking about - boys, or love, and, ultimately, Digital Reee and Adam, but a lot of the details escaped Adam. Well, they clearly hadn't been arguing, if Kai had let Adam curl up on top of him like he had done.

Kai stepped back into the room a moment later, waving when he saw Adam was sitting up.

"Morning," Kai offered. "Are you alright?"

"Are _you_?" Adam retorted, pressing a hand against the side of his head, trying to soothe the persistent ache.

"I had a glass and a half of scotch," Kai replied. "You drank two-thirds of a bottle." His smile flickered down a little. " _Are_ you okay? You seemed - committed to drinking last night."

"Ugh," Adam groaned. "I was an ass. I...think I accused Digital Adam of being Skynet?"

"And you were really invested in talking about Reeve," Kai added, sitting on the couch just out of Adam's reach, frowning. "I couldn't tell if you were talking about Digital or Material Reeve-"

"Digital Adam doesn't share," Adam said, and Kai, sprawling back against the couch, sputtered, choking on his own spit. He kept coughing as he braced himself against the back of the couch, long enough that Adam was starting to worry. "Are...you alright?"

"I'm _fine_ ," Kai wheezed. "That was just...the _last_ thing I expected you to say." He snickered. "It's pretty weird to think about."

" _I_ don't share, either," Adam snapped, cheeks heating as he tried to avoid imagining what Kai was suggesting (he was helped by the fact he hadn't seen the Material Reeve in five years, so couldn't picture him, and couldn't picture the older versions of the digital clones, either).

"Good - to know," Kai replied, seemingly steadied, if watching Adam cautiously. "But, um. Is there anything about this whole - thing you want to talk about?"

"If I ever figure out what's going on, I'll tell you," Adam said. He reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "But right now, I think I need breakfast, and something to drink."

It was at dinner with Xiao when Reeve called. Adam stared at the phone as it rang, heart pounding. Reeve had made clear he wasn't interested in talking to Adam, so what this could mean, he didn't know.

"Can you silence that, if you aren't going to answer it?" Xiao asked. 

Adam sighed and picked up the phone. "Hi?"

"You're going to have to do better than that," Reeve said.

"I - hello?" Adam tried, and Reeve laughed.

"Jeez, you haven't changed a bit," Reeve chuckled, and Adam, uncertain if it was a compliment or an insult, stayed quiet. "And I meant you should be down on your knees thanking me. I found your weirdo."

"Oh - really? That fast?"

"Of course. My double might not have my training, but he's just as smart as I am," Reeve replied. "So. I believe thanks are in order."

"Thanks - you arrogant-" Adam hissed, biting off his reflexive irritation, and took a deep breath. Digital Adam had said Adam couldn't expect a fight, had to be _vulnerable_. "Sorry," he muttered. "Long week. I. Thank you. I don't think we could have figured this out on our own."

"Of _course_ you couldn't. Dude almost literally dropped off the map," Reeve said, smug. "So, how about it?"

"About what?"

"My _thanks_."

"What? Do you need me to send you a cookie bouquet or something?" Reeve was quiet long enough Adam thought he might have hung up.

"This concept of 'cookie bouquets' intrigues me," Reeve said eventually. 

"Well, if the stuff you found out actually helps, you're welcome to it," Adam replied. "I mean, not that I - doubt you or anything, but this shit's sort of heavy, and...I'll send you a cookie bouquet anyway."

"Yeah, no, I don't need pity cookies," Reeve retorted. "Get me a bouquet when you find this guy. I like gingersnaps."

"S - sure," Adam agreed. "Do you need to send me what you found or-"

"I e-mailed Mira," Reeve replied. "I just...wanted to talk. See if you were still an insufferable ass."

"Well...I'm glad you don't seem to be as much of a stubborn jerk as I remember you being," Adam said, holding his breath for the possible fallout.

Reeve, however, laughed. "Yeah, we used to be little shits, didn't we? I'll look forward to the cookies."

When Adam looked up after hanging up the phone, Xiao was staring at him, one eyebrow raised over a dull blue gaze. "What was that about?"

Adam waved a hand. "Catching up with an old friend."

Xiao snorted. "It didn't sound like an old friend. It sounded like someone doing you a favor. Come on, spill, or I'm going to have to hear it from Jesse when he wheedles the story out of the gossip mill."

"I mean, he _is_ an old friend," Adam protested. "We haven't talked in _years_ , though, and. It's going to sound weird and unbelievable."

"You've been in love with him for years," Xiao murmured, and Adam choked.

"I'm - I _haven't_!" he protested. "I told you, we haven't even _talked_ in five years."

Xiao shrugged. "You're nervous talking to him," she said evenly.

"I'm-" Adam bit off his further protest, because he couldn't argue Kai's revelation about Digital Adam and Reeve hadn't made him wonder if their material counterparts would work out. "It's not the point, anyway," he concluded. "He's helping me find someone a - friend's been trying to track down."

And Xiao leaned across the table, eyes narrow, focused, as she drummed the fingers of one hand along the table. It was strange, how her focus was both more and less intense than that of Adam's other friends. She would prod and press for answers more than anyone else, but was strangely dispassionate about the results of her inquiries. She wanted answers, but wouldn't judge, whatever they were. He wouldn't have to answer endless questions, as he would to Riordan, or get into another argument about who was crazy or being scammed, as he would with Jesse.

So he sighed. "I'm trying to find the host of The Hollow on the behalf of an artificial intelligence who's got all my memories."

"Huh." Xiao nodded and pulled herself back up, lips pursed. "Add a few ludicrous romantic entanglements and you've got yourself a half-decent opera."

Adam huffed, amused but unwilling to explain the entire path of his thoughts. "Well, this is real, apparently."

"Is it?" Xiao mused, although she waved her hands, dismissive, as Adam looked to her. "Obviously, I'm not going to get into that. But as a story, a tragedy, I'd explore the boundaries of reality, the differences between those who'd lived in a material world and those who'd been digital. The tensions of different choices made - how could you say what the right decision was, if two people are the same but led different lives?"

And the questioning, while not directed at Adam, made his breath hitch, his heartbeat pause, his skin itch at the conundrum. And Xiao, who was in some ways the most attentive of Adam's friends, snapped her gaze to him, eyes narrowed again. "It isn't just me, is it?" she asked. "You've been thinking about this, too, haven't you?"

"It doesn't matter," Adam retorted. "It's just - weird crap."

"Is it?" Xiao repeated, smirking at Adam's glare. "I don't want to weigh too heavily on the 'art asks important questions' scale, but if you're thinking along those lines, it's probably good to work through it."

"Yeah? I don't suppose you have any advice about _how_ ," Adam muttered in reply, causing Xiao to snicker.

"Absolutely not," she said, shaking her head. "I'm a mess when it comes to - life, love, anything aside from music. You know that. But-" She shook her head again, dark hair fluttering around her face. "Never mind. No," she repeated as Adam opened his mouth. "I gave up on giving people advice last year - it's never gone well."

"It's alright," Adam said. "I don't know what I'd ask, anyway."

The conversation might have ended there if Adam hadn't gotten a text from Mira, a confirmation Reeve had located Gustaf, or at least believed he had. 

"That isn't the old friend you may or may not be in love with, is it?" Xiao asked.

"No, it's Mira. I...am apparently driving to Washington with her and Kai on Friday." Kai responded almost immediately, promising to arrange getting their stuff home during the six-day road trip Adam had apparently agreed to.

"D.C.?"

"No, some tiny-ass town outside of Seattle." Adam flipped to the browser on his phone, reading about Ripley, Washington, or, rather, the Greater Ripley Chamber of Commerce's desperate attempts to make Ripley look like it wasn't the most boring town in America. "I mean, it _does_ look like the sort of place you could hide if you're trying to avoid everyone with an internet connection."

"Hm. You might miss graduation, in that case," Xiao mused.

"Graduation is _next_ Friday," Adam replied, "so it'll be close, but we'll be fine."

"Hm," Xiao replied, apparently noncommittal. Adam didn't think much about his conversation with her over the next few days, especially as Kai showed up at around six in the evening on Thursday, allegedly to pack for the road trip, but actually to lounge on Adam's couch and talk for close to six hours straight. He was, apparently, less interested in the lives of their counterparts as Adam was, as his conversation stayed on the topics of classes, what he expected his summer to be like, and the fact he expected an invitation to Adam's home when Adam actually found an apartment close to his job. Adam found himself unable to provide more than the occasional grunt to indicate he was listening, but Kai seemed unbothered, especially once Adam abandoned the pretense that they were preparing at all for the road trip and just sat on the other side of the couch from Kai, sitting sideways, legs tangled with Kai's, as his friend talked.

With both of their exams and papers finished, only a week between them and Adam's graduation, Adam could finally acknowledge what he'd been trying to ignore the last few weeks - that he was leaving, and that he would miss having Kai nearby when he did so. It was almost certain that Kai would take any excuse he could to cross the four-and-a-half hour distance between them over the next two years, and Adam wasn't certain he would be able to bring himself to object. He couldn't even call out Kai when he realized around midnight that Kai had probably engineered this visit so that by the time they were done talking (by the time _Kai_ was done talking), it would be late enough Adam would worry about sending Kai to walk home on his own and offer Kai his couch.

Adam didn't even complain the next morning, when Kai scrambled, dragging Adam along with him, to get everything together he'd need for a week-long road trip. Kai was holding on the only way he knew how, making excuses if he had to in order to stick around. And Adam didn't mind, really. He would miss his other friends - those graduating with him and those staying behind - but there were chat threads, phone calls, and other means of long-distance communication. But such methods were a poor substitute for being with people, and the discrepancy felt most acute with Kai. And while Kai was right - he was an adult and could, more or less, take care of himself - Adam still remembered his growing worry during Kai's senior year of high school, watching Kai's baseline anxiety sprout and fade into a dull-eyed depression, visible but still somewhere Adam couldn't reach. The circumstances weren't the same, but anything could happen, and instead of being a ten-minute walk away, Adam would be a four-and-a-half hour drive away. Kai had other friends, but only two he really opened up to, and Miles was further away than Adam would be.

Adam _did_ , complain, however, when on arriving at Mira's dorm, they found, instead of Mira's five-seat sedan, Jesse leaning against a pale yellow van. When he saw Adam and Kai, he flashed them a 'V' with his fingers and grinned. 

"Hey, buddy," Jesse called, smile shifting to a crooked smirk as he looked at Kai. "Ready for our epic post-college road trip?"

"What-" Adam stammered. "What are you doing here? What is _that_?"

"That," a distressingly familiar voice, smooth, interjected, "would be my car. Not exactly the coolest, but it does the job." Reeve stepped around the car, not much taller than he'd been at sixteen, but broader, muscled arms crossed across his chest, the same glittering green of his eyes set within a squared-off face.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Adam demanded of Reeve.

"You aren't the only one who can decide he wants to help out a guy who asks for it," Reeve retorted, shrugging. "Besides, certain promises were made vis a vis cookie bouquets, so I've gotta make sure you hold up your end of the bargain."

Adam ignored the inquisitive look from Kai as he stepped toward Reeve, shoulders tense as he glowered at the other man. "I don't need someone to _babysit_ me," he growled.

Reeve rolled his eyes, but before he could make a retort, Kai spoke up.

"If you're here…"

"Hey, dudes!" Skeet hadn't changed much since high school - still lanky, pale-haired, and grinning as he preceded Mira out of the dorm, carrying a duffel bag he tossed into the trunk. He waved at Adam and Kai before slamming the trunk closed. "So, you said we're waiting on two people, right?" he asked of Jesse.

" _What are you doing here_?" Adam repeated to Jesse, who shrugged.

"Xiao got us all together and we decided we should tail along," Jesse replied. 

"Why-"

"Riordan knows more about The Hollow than anyone else we know," Mira said, "so it can't possibly hurt having him around."

"And where does the music major and journalism student fit in?" Adam asked.

"We," Jesse replied, stepping around to loop an arm around Adam's shoulders, "aren't going to let you vanish off the face of the earth without a chance to say goodbye." He ruffled Adam's hair, still smiling. "Besides, tracking down a guy who's been trying to hide from everyone forever sounds like a good time."

It was hard to tell, sometimes, but Adam couldn't see any sign of insincerity in Jesse. "I guess you can come," he allowed.

"Yeah? That's real generous of you, seeing as it's _my_ car," Reeve drawled from where he was clearing out the passenger's seat of the van's front row. " _You're_ welcome not to come along, if you object to the company." His mouth twisted, almost a sneer, and Adam felt his hackles rise. A hand dropped on his shoulder, then; Adam glanced back at Kai's gentle gaze, and felt some of his irritation fade. The chances that Reeve were here specifically to spite Adam were low (and lower that he was doing this for free cookies, even if a decade of friendship had taught Adam that Reeve _would_ collect on that promise). Reeve almost certainly felt some affinity for his digital self, and even the murderous Vanessa might have felt a kinship for someone much like her.

So Adam let his breath out. "No, it's cool. I just didn't expect you - _three_?"

"Yeah, Vanessa's getting snacks," Reeve replied, before winking. "She didn't poison them - I _promise_." The hand on Adam's shoulder tightened; Adam reached up to grab it and offer a reassuring squeeze. 

"Great," Adam grunted. "Come on, let's get your stuff in the back and get seats."

"I called shotgun!" Skeet called out.

"He did," Jesse confirmed.

"Yeah, whatever," Adam muttered, and dragged Kai to the backmost row of seats. It was childish, he knew, but the best way to avoid arguing was to keep his distance from Reeve. Outside, Xiao arrived, and, shortly after, Riordan, and then a curvy white girl with bags from the local supermarket who by process of elimination (her hair, bright red, was nothing like what Adam remembered) must have been Vanessa. There was a short debate before Jesse clambered in next to Adam, Riordan next to him, the girls in the middle row ahead of them, and Reeve and Skeet in the front.

"Okay!" Reeve called out. "Anyone need to piss before we go? No? Then let's get this show on the road."

It wasn't like the trip was interminable. Skeet started a weird memory game that turned vicious as Vanessa and Xiao added obscure composers and chemical compounds into the list of things people had to remember. Vanessa tossed snacks at people on request (except to Kai; she'd handed his snack back to him, biting her lip and looking up at Kai through a hooded gaze, glancing away when Kai took it with only a polite thanks). Reeve took a vote for where to stop for lunch, and though he grumbled when the vote dictated Arby's, agreed to the decision (even if he insisted they eat in the restaurant itself).

But the conversation, perhaps inevitably, turned to their digital selves, and the Digital World.

"I'm not that interested in what Digital Vanessa is up to," Vanessa said to Skeet, airily.

"Come on, really?" Skeet demanded, leaning forward, resting his head on the back of Vanessa's seat. "She's like, you!"

"No, she isn't," Vanessa retorted. "We might share a bunch of memories, but it doesn't mean I need to be invested in what she's been doing for the last five years."

"I don't know," Kai mused. "Don't you feel sort of - responsible for them?"

Vanessa turned on him, eyes (the gold-amber shade had to be colored contacts) narrow, mouth scowling. "What the _fuck_ do you mean by that?"

Kai shifted slightly, so that his right shoulder was just tucked behind Adam's left (Adam might have been the only one who noticed), but shrugged, apparently unconcerned with Vanessa's irritation. "I mean, they only exist because we played The Hollow. They never asked for our - memories and quirks and phobias." He shrugged again. "I'd like to know - they're doing okay."

Vanessa snorted and shifted back around so Adam couldn't see her expression. "I bet it never occurred to you they're just playing us," she said.

"No," Kai replied, voice soft. "I remember being played before. I know the signs." Vanessa flinched away from Kai at that, and Adam saw her expression was almost pained, eyes looking down, away from Kai, a pout to her lips. It was the first suggestion Adam had ever seen she felt guilty about what she'd done to them - to Kai, but nowhere near enough to feel at ease around her. He _did_ , however, feel proud that Kai had scored a hit on her with his comment.

"I don't think we're being played," Reeve said from the front of the van, "but there's something they aren't telling us. I find it hard to believe some evil AI just popped out of nowhere."

"Well, obviously they aren't telling us everything," Mira muttered. "They had no idea how we were going to react. If Kai hadn't decided to trust Digital Kai, we might have ignored them completely. Weirdy - Gustaf - must have helped them a lot, if they're holding out for him to help out now."

"Hn," Reeve grunted. "Still, they could give us a fucking clue about what's going on."

Adam didn't speak up, because he wasn't about to publicly agree with Reeve, not against Mira. The conversation moved on, from there, and Adam tried to turn to his phone to avoid having to engage with anyone else. Unfortunately, his phone had died sometime in the last two hours, forcing him to join Kai in staring out the window.

It might have answered some questions earlier if he'd had a chance to check his mail.

But then again, it might have just made things worse; Adam would never again be more cognizant of how different choices could affect someone's life, and how you could never be certain of what that effect would be.

* * *

**To:** Adam Luna  
 **From:** HLN Group Legal Team < _Ohilt@legal.hlngroup.net_ >  
 **Subject:** IP Misuse (First Notice)

ADAM LUNA

It has come to our attention that you have been in contact with persons or entities engaged in the unauthorized access, theft, duplication, or modification of Intellectual Property (IP) owned solely by HLN Group, Ltd. 

This communication serves as an initial demand that you cease communications relating to the unauthorized access, theft, duplication, or modification of IP owned solely by HLN Group, Ltd., cease or refrain from all activities that may constitute aiding or abetting the unauthorized access, theft, duplication, or modification of IP owned solely by HLN Group, Ltd., and and to delete or destroy all duplications of IP owned solely by HLN Group, Ltd., or any derivative thereof, within your possession, whether in digital or physical form.

A response to this communication asserting you have ceased such prohibited communications, ceased or do not intend to engage in such prohibited activities, and destroyed all relevant data within your possession, will be accepted as an affidavit to the effect of such statement. Failure to make such an assertion, or continuation of such prohibited communications, engaging in such prohibited activities, or retention of such relevant data, will be pursued by HLN Group, Ltd. as willful violation of their IP, and persecuted to the full extent of their influence.


	4. AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This doesn't actually play out the way you'd expect it to.

"Okay," Kai said when he and Skeet returned to the car. "The hotel apparently only has two rooms left." He flipped out two small envelopes and held them up. "One's sort of a suite - there's two beds and a couch thing - and the other's just got two beds on its own."

"Miranda and I can share without anyone getting kicked in their sleep," Xiao said, stepping up close to Kai, "and unless Vanessa's got anyone she's willing to share with-"

" _No_ ," Vanessa growled.

"You boys can figure things out yourselves," Xiao said. "That okay?"

"Me and Reeve are chill sharing, right?" Skeet said, raising a fist to Reeve, who bumped it obligingly.

"Hey, not so fast," Jesse said from where he was leaning against the van. He grinned at the assembled crowd. "As Kai's paying for these rooms, he should get some say in how he gets paired up in this bed-sharing arrangement."

"Uh." Kai glanced quickly through his options, before his gaze settled on Adam and he shrugged, offering Adam a wavering smile. "I don't really know the rest of you well, so. Adam?"

"Sure, buddy," Adam replied, nudging Kai's shoulder before looking up to Jesse. "I guess that puts you and Riordan together."

"No way," Riordan muttered. "I've heard Jesse kicks _and_ steals sheets. I can sleep on the floor."

"Well, as long as you've got it figured out," Xiao replied, heading toward the trunk. "Let's get unpacked and find something to eat."

Dinner was slightly raucous, nine young adults crowded at a table in a generic American restaurant, half of them growing more energetic on their second or third drinks. Jesse, as per usual, grew increasingly flirty as he got drunk, albeit not, as Adam had expected, toward Kai.

"You," Jesse murmured, leaning toward Reeve, "are my hero."

"Oh?" Reeve retorted, one eyebrow raised in disbelief. "You just met me."

"Ah, but you. You!" Jesse declared, "got my boy Adam here to cut loose and go on an epic post-graduation road trip. This is the sort of fun he was supposed to be having all year, and you, my magical friend, _did_ it."

"I don't recall having anything to do with rogue AI's trying to murder our digital clones," Reeve retorted, causing Jesse to laugh.

"Just take a compliment, dude," Jesse said, patting the table between them. And Reeve - smiled. It was barely there, but Adam was familiar with Reeve's expressions, recognized the helpless, genuine smile of Reeve fighting back an honest expression. Adam couldn't say why the sight of Reeve's smile sent a sick wash of emotions through his stomach, or pushed him to leave the table to get some air, but it was Mira who found him a minute later.

"So," she said, quiet, nudging Adam's shoulder. "Do you want to talk about what just happened in there?" When Adam didn't reply, she poked him harder. "Or all day? Like, I know you had a weird, semi-repressed crush on him when you were fourteen-"

"I don't have a _crush_ on him!" Adam snapped.

"Uh...huh." Mira circled around Adam, staring - intently. Adam resisted the urge to squirm under that attention. Her focus was - more judgmental than Xiao's, but more invested, which was always a little worse. "I don't want to, you know, doubt your lived experiences, but...this whole attitude is consistent with 'repressed jealous Adam', which was a character I have not missed seeing since you got out of your emo phase."

Adam grunted rather than respond, because...Mira wasn't entirely wrong.

"I hate it when he gets like this."

"Reeve?" Mira asked. When Adam didn't respond, she pressed further. "Jesse?"

"It's so easy for him," Adam growled. "He just - smiles and winks and. Did you know he made out with Kai?"

"I - what?" Mira ducked her head to get a better look at Adam's face, frowning thoughtfully. "When was this?"

"I don't know - Kai's freshman year, Halloween," Adam replied.

"And you're...mad about this?" Mira asked, voice slow, even. Cautious. And Adam, sick of the attention, growled.

"No. Yes. Maybe?"

"Well, that covers _every_ possible response," Mira replied, rolling her eyes as she stepped away. She folded her arms across her chest and stared, fixedly, at Adam. "So if you're going to answer, maybe pick one?"

"I don't know, then," Adam snapped. He took a deep breath, then; he might have to be more careful around Kai, but it didn't mean he could lash out at Mira, either. "I don't know," he repeated, quieter. And at that, Mira's expression smoothed out, wary concern replaced with - a gentle smile. She stepped back in and rested her hands on Adam's waist, resting her forehead against his shoulder.

"For having such loving, supportive parents, you're sort of a mess," she said.

"I-" Adam bit back the angry protest, because there wasn't any point. His parents _had_ been loving and supportive - much better than, say, Kai's. And Adam - wasn't reacting the way a stable, happy person would. "Sorry."

"For what? Not having it together?" Mira asked, patting Adam's hips. "News flash - you are twenty-one. Also, I have the sneaking suspicion _no one_ has it together."

"Hm," Adam huffed. He didn't argue, certain it wouldn't resolve anything, and just stress Mira out (Adam was already stressed, but it wasn't fair to just spread that around).

"So," Mira said after a still moment, "do you think you can come back in without murdering Reeve? Or Jesse?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Adam said. He stepped back and smiled at Mira. "And. Thanks."

"For what?"

"It's - Reeve said something the other day, and. I didn't mean to make it your job to keep us from killing each other. So I'm - thanks for being here. Even if-"

He grunted, the wind forced out of him, as Mira ran into him, arms locked around his middle as she ducked her head down. She was quiet and still long enough Adam returned the embrace, looser, but still present.

"I did it because you were my friends," she grumbled into Adam's chest. "Both of you. But, it was."

"Exhausting," Adam concluded. "Reeve said. I'm sorry."

"For what?" Mira chuckled, voice a little wet. "I'm a girl - I grew up being told by every stupid fucking TV show that mediating's my job. It's not your fault I never-"

"It's my fault for never _thinking_ about it," Adam said. He squeezed Mira a little harder. "I always thought - it's just how we worked. Reeve and I fought, and you smoothed things over. No wonder you preferred spending time with Skeet."

"Hah!" Mira scoffed into Adam's chest, but her voice was a little steadier. They were quiet, still a moment, before she spoke up again. "So. Are you two...talking or?"

Adam shrugged, before realizing Mira couldn't see. "No. I - maybe. We're trying, I think. He's - I think we just - rub each other the wrong way, sometimes. And I want to know. If that means we can't be friends."

"It's all the sexual tension," Mira said. "You two just need to bang it out."

Adam sputtered as he squeezed too hard, making Mira huff in surprise, and then she was standing a few feet away, laughing uproariously, barely able to keep her balance, while Adam flushed and tried to get himself under control.

"Oh _god_ ," she wheezed. "You - Skeet and I were sure you two were going to have some ill-advised makeout at some point, and you never - but your _face_!"

"Shut up," Adam retorted, kicking Mira's ankle lightly. But that sent her into another cycle of laughter, and Adam resigned himself to seeing this through. It took only a minute for Mira to compose herself, but she was grinning, still, when she stood up. She stepped up and patted his cheek as she passed, returning to the restaurant.

"You're allowed to have ill-advised crushes," she said. "And whatever you work out with Reeve - or not - is _your_ business. Just - don't drag me in the middle of things anymore, okay?"

"Y - yeah," Adam agreed. He stayed out there for a minute or so after Mira left, breathing in the warm night air, until Riordan emerged from the restaurant, pausing when he saw Adam. Riordan blinked once, quiet, before running a hand through his dark hair.

"I didn't expect to see you out here," Riordan said.

"Sorry, I-"

"No, it's fine," Riordan replied, waving his hand. "You aren't - it's fine." He took a few steps away from Adam, apparently staring at the gas station across the street.

"Is everything okay?" Adam asked after a moment.

"Kai said his parents are paying for dinner," Riordan said, and Adam shook his head, even though he knew Riordan wasn't looking at him.

"I meant with you," Adam clarified. "You're stuck sleeping on the floor, you've been really quiet-"

"I've been thinking," Riordan replied. "About your - about the Digital World."

"Do _you_ think they're planning to - overthrow humanity, or kill Gustaf, or whatever?"

"I couldn't say. I haven't talked to them, and. I'm not familiar with them. I. When you said they called their - world the Digital World, I. It sounded familiar to me."

"How?" Adam asked, hope rising at Riordan's words. Not knowing anything about the world their digital selves lived in was, Adam suspected, the main reason they were all nervous about helping their clones. If Riordan had encountered them, or some emissary of their world, it would go a long way to helping them understand their digital selves, and maybe what they wanted.

"It's from a cartoon. An old one - from around the beginning of the twenty-first century," Riordan said, apparently unaware of Adam's brief hope, and subsequent dashing oif that hope. "The characters fight virus creatures that threaten both the Digital and - material worlds." Riordan began scratching anxiously at his palms. It was worrying; Riordan usually tried to keep still around other people unless he was really nervous. And even without Adam knowing that, the direction of Riordan's musing suggested some unpleasant possibilities.

"You don't think they need help with an AI," Adam guessed. "You think it's a virus - something that's dangerous to _us_ , too."

"That's one possibility," Riordan allowed. "Someone from the material world might be interfering in the Digital World, instead. But in either case, I think we're in danger, as well."

"Then why not tell us that right off the bat?"

Riordan shrugged. "I would have." He didn't continue, which meant he felt the conclusion was obvious.

"But they aren't _you_ ," Adam concluded. " _I'd_ think it was a little too much to get someone to believe right off the bat, even if I thought I could convince them I was really their digital counterpart. Still." It - felt right, the big secret the digital clones were keeping from them being that the threat to the Digital World threatened the material one, as well (or at least the digital architecture that supported banking, health, and pretty much every other part of people's lives).

"You don't think we should tell everyone else," Riordan said, abrupt.

"It's a theory," Adam replied. "A good one, but - what can we do differently if that's the case?"

"Hm," Riordan muttered, "I suppose you're right."

It was at that point the rest of their party poured out of the restaurant; Kai grinned and looped an arm around Adam's side, leaning heavily on Adam as they returned to the van. Kai got like this, sometimes, almost drunk, when around other people who were drinking. He latched onto Adam's arm when they got back into the van, and dozed during the fifteen-minute ride. Adam raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Jesse, who shrugged.

"I didn't do anything," he protested.

"Nothing except spend all night flirting with Reeve!" Vanessa called back. "Up top!" Mira hesitantly slapped Vanessa's palm.

"Well, since you've apparently been paying attention, do you know what made Kai so clingy?" Adam asked.

Vanessa rolled her eyes as she tilted her head over the seat back, her upside-down smile less threatening than Adam remembered. "Your boy," she drawled, "is a clingy, needy mess. That's the vibe _I_ got, anyway."

"Hey!" Adam snapped, at the same time Mira poked Vanessa's side.

"What?" Vanessa demanded. "He followed me around like a puppy when I gave him those doe eyes, and he's following you around like a puppy now. It's clear that he hasn't changed much in the last five years."

"Yeah?" Adam retorted. "And how about you? Try to kill anyone else since The Hollow?"

"It was a fucking _game_!" Vanessa snarled, snapping her head back up. "He was never in any real danger-"

"You didn't **know** that!" Adam shouted. "Because no matter what I thought, I wasn't going to-"

"Well, first of all, you did," Vanessa said. "You were about to leave us stuck in those icebergs, maybe get eaten. So don't act all high and mighty." Adam scoffed, and Vanessa almost flinched away from him. It was - odd, that she was suddenly quiet. The entire van was quiet, except for the quiet breaths against Adam's shoulder (Kai was actually asleep, it seemed).

"Vanessa," Skeet murmured from the front. "Maybe…"

"You _started_ it, acting like it was some competition-"

"It **was**!"

"You didn't _know_ \- for all you knew, you were stranding us there to be tormented by the Weird Guy for eternity-"

"No, I **knew** ," Vanessa snapped. "I _remembered who I was_."

"That's impossible," Mira replied.

"No, it isn't," Riordan said. There was something odd about his voice - clipped, louder than Adam was used to. "Unlicensed hardware was developed to block the memory wipe. It must have been - contact lenses; the production team would have recognized the other devices people used to game the system."

"Oh my god, are you angry at me for _cheating_?" Vanessa retorted. And at that declaration, Adam could identify Riordan's tone as anger - something he hadn't heard from the other man in the time they'd known each other.

"I'm angry at you for risking the lives of five other people without their consent in order to win a video game," Riordan sniped. "Those lenses could have caused the program to wipe your memories for real. They could have corrupted the backup data stored by the Hollow Games servers. I'm pretty certain it _did_ cause the glitch that could have gotten all six of you _killed_."

Kai stirred against Adam's side, looking up, eyes bleary. "Who's got what killed?"

" **Vanessa** ," Adam replied, voice tight, chest pounding, whole body tense enough that if Kai weren't still lying up against him, he might have lunged at Vanessa to strangle her, "was just explaining how the glitch in The Hollow was _her_ fault - that she nearly got us all killed for a _video game_."

"Oh," Kai murmured. He straightened up a little, pulling away from Adam, although he left his hand around Adam's arm. Adam glanced over, finding Kai was looking down at the seat between them, instead of glaring at Vanessa, like most of the rest of the people in the van were.

Adam knew Kai well enough to recognize the faint stirrings of anxiety - the sort of closed-off posture he got around his parents. 

Now wasn't the time to accuse him of anything.

Adam nudged Kai, grabbing Kai's hand to keep it rooted when Kai started and nearly pulled away. Adam smiled at him, as gently as he could manage. "What's going on, buddy?"

"I-" Kai glanced back at Vanessa, biting his lip. "I sort of knew she'd done something - bad. I didn't know _what_ , but." He shrugged. "I should have-"

"Should have told us?" Mira asked. "Hey, Vanessa totally did something bad I don't know exactly what, so maybe be suspicious of her? We already _were_ suspicious."

"I should have told you - not to judge her too much," Kai continued, voice wavering, even as he leaned a little closer to Adam. "Digital Kai said - well, she was fifteen. We were all dumb when we were fifteen."

"She nearly killed five people and herself," Riordan retorted. "That's not just dumb; it's criminal."

"Leave her alone," Adam said, earning a glare from Riordan. "We're all alive. Worrying about something that happened five years ago isn't going to help anyone." Riordan fell back against his seat, stil scowling, and Vanessa, glowering at the argument in the back seat, jerked her head around to the front. Kai, though, smiled, gently, at Adam, nudging him before leaning back against Adam's side. Adam appeared to have killed off the discussion, as the van was quiet for the rest of the drive. Everyone was subdued when they arrived at the hotel, washing up and going to bed (or, in Riordan's case, stealing the comforter and spare pillows from the hotel closet) with little fanfare.

Adam returned from the bathroom to find Kai burrowed beneath the blankets on the bed he'd chosen for them, eyes closed and breath steady and even. Adam joined Kai, taking care not to pull too many of the blankets away from Kai, settling a respectable distance away. He was tired, himself, so ignored the murmuring of the others talking, and fell asleep in what could have been moments. His sleep was peaceful, restful, at least until he was woken by the click of a phone and opened his eyes to slits to examine his surroundings. Jesse was smirking at Adam from next to the bed, camera side of his phone aimed at Adam.

"What's going on?" Adam grumbled.

"You just looked so sweet like that," Jesse cooed, flipping his phone around to show Adam the picture he'd taken. Kai's face was mashed up against Adam's side, one arm thrown across his chest. Adam's cheek was resting on the top of Kai's head, one of his own arms holding the other man close. There was a smile gracing Adam's lips, and Kai - well, his expression was hard to read from the photo, but peeking down, Adam saw Kai relaxed, expression gentle, no tension in his form, except for the hand fisted in Adam's shirt, keeping him from moving too far. The situation was hardly a surprise; Kai was clingy even when awake, and Adam had never slept on the same bed or couch as Kai without the two of them gravitating toward each other. It was sweet, he supposed, especially given how rarely Adam had seen Kai sleeping easily when he was sleeping alone.

Which wasn't to say he wouldn't fight Jesse to make sure that photograph never left his phone.

"Don't worry," Skeet drawled from where he was sprawled, still half-dressed, on his and Reeve's bed, "I made him promise to delete it, like, ASAP, if not sooner."

"Yeah, just thought you'd like to see," Jesse replied, poking at his phone before turning it to show off the gallery was free of photos of Adam and Kai.

"Why would I want to see that?"

Jesse rolled his eyes. "To prove you've got _zero_ competition here - hell, you and I aren't even playing the same game."

"...Competition?" Adam was used to thinking only slowly in the first few minutes after waking up, but he felt somewhat more sluggish, here, as Jesse just laughed.

"Forget it," he replied. The door to the bathroom opened, revealing Reeve, dressed for the day, and Jesse bolted inside, slamming the door after him. Kai grunted and shifted next to Adam, although he didn't wake up.

Reeve sat on the far bed, raising an eyebrow at Adam. "You look like you slept well," he said.

"Yeah," Adam agreed, stretching gently, to avoid waking Kai. "Um. Do we know when we're leaving?"

"Twenty minutes or so," Reeve replied.

"What?" Adam glanced toward the bathroom door, which admitted only the sound of the shower.

"Yeah, I'd hurry, too - I have a feeling the ladies are eager to get out of the same room." Reeve leaned back on his hands, grinning at Adam. "So you might want to wake up Sleeping Beauty over there."

"Yeah," Adam agreed, reluctant. But when he shook Kai to wake him, the other man's face went from peaceful to a wary, drowsy frown, and then to a sleepy smile, before he let his head fall again.

"Hi," he murmured into the mattress.

Adam nudged Kai, forcing him to roll away. "We've got twenty minutes until we need to leave," he said, earning a drawn-out groan from Kai. "You don't get to complain," Adam chided. "This whole field trip was your idea."

"I know," Kai moaned, "but I didn't expect to have to wake up _early_." He twisted his head around to Adam, brown eyes wide, chin quivering, close enough Adam could see the pale freckles scattered across his nose and cheeks. "Can you do anything? For just fifteen minutes?"

Adam looked up at Reeve, who rolled his eyes before heading to the door. Adam was almost certain Reeve was smiling, though.

"For _you_ ," Reeve said, "I'll get you thirty. It's my van, after all."

Kai gave Adam a bright smile at the announcement, as if Adam had made this happen, instead of Reeve, and even though they ended up needing only an extra ten minutes. It was-

Odd.

Nothing that had happened this morning was _unusual_ \- previous planned and impromptu sleepovers had ended with Adam and Kai cuddled up on couches, beds, or futons, and they had long ago resolved whatever awkwardness either of them might have been inclined to. But for the first time in years, Adam felt strange about it.

He wasn't stupid; he _knew_ what had so amused Jesse, although he couldn't quite figure why Jesse was talking about competition. However close Adam and Kai were, Kai had never said anything that had suggested he was attracted to Adam; he was as clingy and affectionate toward all of his friends to whatever degree they allowed.

And Adam - hadn't thought about it. Or. Hadn't Thought About It, with capital letters and everything. There'd been a shaky month or so when Kai had figured out why Adam and Mira had asked him to join their team, before they'd won back his affection by pointing out there was no reason they needed to keep him around afterward except they liked him. Adam - didn't want to upset that delicate balance, so left it alone. There were plenty of fish in the sea, after all, and having Kai's friendship had become a bright point in Adam's life. He hadn't dreamed about it, hadn't been _pining_ , but.

He eyed Kai covertly over the course of the day, trying to find some sign of what had made Jesse claim Adam didn't have competition (Adam wasn't even _competing_ , but. He was curious). Except Kai was his usual self - trailing close to the people he considered friends, using Adam as a physical and metaphorical shield when people argued, draping himself over who was closest (usually Adam) and falling asleep with no provocation. He was awake for the argument over whether they should stop at some tourist trap in Oregon, and won Adam to his side with a repeat of the morning's puppy-dog eyes. He'd grinned at Adam when Adam pointed out a shirt covered in rainbow glitter spelling out "Birannosaurus Rex", buying it for himself, and then one for Adam that read "Elves Are Gay - Deal With It".

It was normal shit, which left Adam confused, lost in his thoughts enough to miss out on the end-of-day jostling over splitting the four rooms Kai secured, ending up rooming with Kai alone.

There was also a pool, where Adam retreated after dinner, floating on his back to look at the muted night sky while his mind drifted. He'd successfully dissociated when a splash dragged him to the present, and to a dark form slipping into the far side of the pool. It took a startled moment for Adam to recognize Reeve, who smirked at Adam.

"A little jumpy there?" he teased.

"Shut up, I was - spaced out," Adam grumbled, kicking at the water to propel himself closer to the edge, where Reeve was stretching, evidently to swim laps or something, if the musculature of his torso was any indication. 

Reeve's smirk didn't waver as he leaned back against the side of the pool. "Yeah? About what?"

"I - you, a little," Adam said after a moment. He didn't want to talk about Kai right now, or at least not with Reeve, but the topic of Reeve - of Digital Adam and Digital Reeve - felt safer with one of the subjects of his concern.

"What?" Reeve's smirk slipped, eyebrows tucked in, arms coming in to cross across his chest. "Don't tell me you've been pining for me this whole time."

"I - _haven't_ ," Adam protested, twisting around and standing up, so he could stare at the parking lot spread out past the pool, instead of Reeve. "It's just-"

"You didn't take one look at these abs and fall head over heels, I'll tell you that," Reeve said. "It might have been five years, but I _know_ you, Adam, and you're not the type to be swayed by a pretty face or a nice ass."

"It's - I'm not," Adam agreed. Reeve was quiet long enough that Adam felt on edge, anxious enough to keep talking. "But it's been years, and when I found out - when I saw you again, I started wondering."

" _I_ haven't been pining for you, either."

"I _know_ that!" Adam snapped. "It's just - I've been wondering."

Reeve scoffed. "You don't want to date me."

"How do you know that?" Adam demanded, finally turning, to find Reeve half-submerged, elbows propped up on the edge of the pool to keep him up. Reeve smirked again.

"You and me - even when we liked each other, everything was - contentious. You always wanted to be in charge-"

"That's not-"

"And you might have changed," Reeve said, plowing through Adam's objections, "but you don't want someone who makes everything a challenge. Come on." He pushed off, drifting closer to Adam, smirk replaced by a more neutral expression, face relaxed, but - serious. Focused on Adam. "You remember, right?"

"I - you make it sound like I want someone who just - goes along with everything."

"Ugh," Reeve grunted, scowling before vanishing underwater for a moment and standing, looming, even though he wasn't much taller than Adam, and poked him in the chest. "This is why we could never go five minutes without arguing. You need to turn everything into some sort of - debate, or indictment, and I could never let it go. What _I'm saying_ is you want someone who'll let things go - _some_ things - enough that you aren't expecting everything to be a whole _thing_. Debate. Fight. Whatever."

"But Digital Adam-"

Reeve burst into laughter, forcing Adam into sullen silence until Reeve, still snickering, calmed enough to meet his eyes, grinning. "Dude, that is the most 'you' thing you've ever done."

"What are you talking about?" Adam demanded.

Reeve slid closer, wrapping an arm around Adam's shoulders. "You find out your digital clone made a - different choice from you, and freak out because you worry it means _you're_ making the _wrong_ one. It's classic Adam, and it'd be hilarious if it weren't stressing you out so much." He squeezed Adam's shoulders before rapping his fist lightly against Adam's head. "Whatever Digital Adam and Digital Reeve have got going on, they've worked it out for themselves. There's a whole - history on how they decided they can work together. I doubt it's the domestic bliss you've built up in your head, anyway."

"But-"

"Shh." Reeve put a hand over Adam's mouth - not rough, but a firm sign to be quiet. "Just - listen for a second, alright? Because I'm a - fighter, and you're a stubborn bastard. We might work, if you wanted to work on it, and if I were inclined to. But I can tell just _looking_ at you that you're tired. You want something - direct. And maybe that's not right for Digital Adam, but it might be right for _you_." He then patted Adam's cheek and stepped away.

Adam decided Reeve was right about something - Adam _was_ tired. So he waved Reeve off, clambered out of the pool, and returned to his room. Kai was sprawled out on his bed, flipping through his phone; he lifted his head to offer Adam a smile when Adam walked in, but made a concerned hum when Adam dropped face-down on the other bed.

"You okay?"

"The worst thing about arguing with Reeve is when he's _right_ ," Adam grumbled.

"Um. Is this the sort of thing you want to talk about, or just wallow?"

" _Ugh_ ," Adam replied. The room was quiet, save for the air conditioning, for the next few minutes while Adam glared at the sheets. At last he rolled over to glare at the ceiling - a change in scenery, at least. "Ever since you told me that my digital clone's dating Reeve, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it."

"Yeah, I guessed. You've been - distracted."

"But Reeve has to be all reasonable about it - all, 'you don't want a relationship with a lot of drama', and 'just because Digital Adam and Digital Reeve worked things out doesn't mean we would'." Adam rolled over; Kai had rolled over himself, gaze fixed on Adam, and for a moment, he felt uncomfortable, something in Kai's gaze making him feel - uneasy. Kai shrugged, then, and the moment was over, Kai just half-smiling at Adam.

"He's right," Kai agreed. "But it could also be, like - proof the two of you could work, if you worked at it."

"But I don't want to do that," Adam said, dropping onto his back. "Reeve's right. Those two got together after nearly dying in order to escape Hollow Games' sinister clutches, and I don't want to go through something like that. I want." He huffed, a long, drawn-out breath, uncertain how to express what he wanted - how to know _what_ he wanted. "I'm going to take a shower."

The half-hour he spent in the shower didn't clarify things, but it at least was relaxing, and Kai wasn't staring at Adam when he stepped out of the bathroom, dry and dressed for bed. He waited until Adam sat on his bed and plugged in his phone to charge to speak up.

"So, uh. You and Reeve?"

"We're friends," Adam replied. "Probably. Eventually. But we're never going to be - boyfriends, or anything."

"That's - good," Kai said. "That you're getting along, sort of. Not that you're not dating. I mean, if you're happy about it, that's good." It was silent for a few moments. " _Are_ you happy about it?"

"Yeah, I was just - freaking out." Adam shrugged. "Got stuck in my own head."

"But you're okay now, right?"

Adam considered for a moment. The past few days had involved more conversations about his feelings than he'd expected, but they'd settled some of his concerns that Digital Adam's choices came from better judgment, that Adam had messed up, single while his digital clone was dating Digital Reeve. And beyond that...he was getting time with people he wouldn't see nearly as often in the near future, including (or especially) Kai.

"Yeah," Adam agreed. "I'm okay."

"Great!" Kai replied. "I'm going to get ready for bed."

Adam decided, after a moment, that Kai had the right idea, and pulled aside the sheets to settle down. Eyes closed, he dozed until the bathroom door opened to admit Kai, who moved quietly around the room for a few minutes before he stilled. Adam had presumed Kai had gone to sleep, until Kai spoke up.

"Um, Adam?"

"What?"

"I know this might be a little weird, but, uh, can I sleep - can we share?"

Adam opened his eyes and tilted his head over to look at Kai, who, dressed in sleep pants and a worn gray T-shirt, was fiddling with the hem of said shirt. When he saw Adam was looking, Kai took a hurried step back. "Like, obviously, it's weird, but I don't really sleep well, and whenever I sleep over or you sleep over or whatever, I sleep a lot better, so." His cheeks darkened under further scrutiny, until Adam scooted back to give Kai room to join him.

"I'm only doing this because it's a queen-sized bed," Adam warned, as Kai climbed gingerly in to join him, flailing briefly to get comfortable under the sheets, and then steal the pillow Adam had just gotten into the right position. "If it were any smaller, you'd be on your own."

"...Thanks," Kai muttered; he'd settled faced away from Adam, so Adam couldn't see his expression, but Kai didn't sound as nervous as he had a minute ago.

"Any time, buddy," Adam replied.

Adam slept soundly, although he woke with Kai actually sprawled on top of him, their legs tangled, his arms more or less pinning Adam's down, and his face mashed up against Adam's shoulder. It wasn't uncomfortable, except that Adam needed to pee, and there was no graceful way to ease out from under Kai.

So he poked Kai's side cautiously, causing the other man to jolt up, eyes darting over, down, before he scrambled up to the far side of the bed, cheeks flushed. "Sorry - I don't-"

"What have you got to be sorry about?" Adam retorted. "I _know_ you're a cuddler; I knew that before I agreed to share." Heading to the bathroom, he paused, grabbing clean clothes before he left Kai alone. Kai seemed back to normal when Adam emerged, showered and dressed, so Adam decided to catch up on his e-mail. Even on good days, he didn't check it more than once a day, and between running out of battery the first day of their trip, and the subsequent drama, Adam hadn't managed since then.

By the time Kai emerged, Adam had read through the two dozen e-mails he'd received over the past two days, but was still fixated on the last, the fourth from the same sender. Kai slowed on his way to the door, pausing just out of Adam's reach. He ducked his head to catch Adam's eye, and there Adam could see a pinched, worried expression. "What's up?" Kai asked. "You look-"

"I don't know," Adam admitted. "But it looks bad." He passed his phone to Kai, who scanned the last e-mail, the one that, on Adam's failure to respond to the three previous ones, promised dire consequences at the hands of the HLN Group legal department, whoever that was.

"Isn't this the company that bought up Hollow Games when they went bankrupt?" Kai asked. The question sparked a memory of a similar topic coming up with Riordan.

"Yeah." And that memory sparked another, something that seemed too relevant to be a coincidence. "Come on." He hopped off of the bed, grabbing Kai's wrist as he went to drag the other man behind him. Kai yelped wordlessly, but followed. When Adam knocked at the door of the room the other three men had shared, he found his mind tripping over facts, implications, and speculation, such that when Jesse opened the door, Adam blurted out, "Bot!"

"...Are you high?" Jesse asked.

Adam, though, shoved past him, pointing at Riordan, who was on his own phone on the sofa bed he'd clearly slept in. "It isn't an artificial intelligence attacking the digital clones," Adam said. "It's a _bot_."


	5. Deliberation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally find Gustaf, which isn't as helpful as they'd hoped. And Adam and Kai have a long-overdue conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't feel like trying to figure out who's who on the group chat, here it is:
> 
> float like a butterfly - Material Vanessa  
> Sting Like a V - Digital Vanessa  
> Aquagirl - Material Mira  
> Legaylas - Material Adam  
> Bat-Adam - Digital Adam  
> Flame On - Material Kai  
> nopartylikeahollowparty - Digital Kai  
> Mo-Skeet-er - Material Skeet  
> TK Love - Digital Reeve

"I've set up the Discord server," Riordan said.

" _Thank_ you!" Vanessa grunted, pulling out her phone. "Time to get some straight answers."

"Yeah, let's not go getting mad at people for keeping secrets," Skeet warned from the front seat, although Adam suspected no one else was listening. _Adam_ was looking over Kai's shoulder at his phone as Kai entered the server Riordan had invited all of the digital clones to, certain that a group setting was the quickest way to get answers.

**Hollow Gang**

**float like a butterfly** Today at 10:03  
Okay, not to throw around accusations of bad faith.  
But we've got some facts suggesting you've been giving us the runaround about what's been going down.  
So, give it to us straight.  
What the fuck is going on?

**Sting Like a V** Today at 10:05  
How about we dial back the righteous indignation a couple of notches, okay?  
Shit's _complicated_ , so we went for simple explanations.

"Can someone _please_ keep me updated here?" Reeve demanded. "In case you've forgotten, _I'm_ the hapless asshole you talked into driving you to Ripley."

"Vanessa's getting into an argument with herself," Adam called. "Kai, can you-"

**Hollow Gang**

**Aquagirl** Today at 10:08  
Okay, look.  
We're a little weirded out because Adam - @Legaylas-

"Did _Jesse_ put you up to giving me that nickname?" Adam demanded of Riordan, who shrugged.

"It's cute," Kai said, distracted, and Adam glanced back at the screen to catch the conversation before Kai scrolled past it.

**Hollow Gang**

**Sting Like a V** Today at 10:09  
Well, on my part, it's fucking embarrassing.  
Like getting beat up by a cow.

**Flame On** Today at 10:11  
cows can actually be v dangerous

**Sting Like a V** Today at 10:12  
_Thank you_ , I am well aware of that.  
@nopartylikeahollowparty, can you talk geek to him?  
Please?  
**BatAdam** Today at 10:14  
M-Kai's right; cows _are_ dangerous.  
Bots can be, too.

**Sting Like a V** Today at 10:15  
I know  
Sigh  
Someone else explain this _**please**_

**nopartylikeahollowparty** Today at 10:16  
Absolutely  
See, The HLN Group released a bot to scrub the internet of anything that violates their intellectual property  
Which includes everything Hollow Games owns  
And for  
Complicated reasons, every AI on the web has traces of code the bot identified as Hollow Games IP  
**Aquagirl** Today at 10:20  
What?

**Mo-Skeet-er** Today at 10:20  
how

**float like a butterfly** Today at 10:20  
That's ridiculous

**Flame On** Today at 10:21  
Um  
not exactly

"It _is_ ridiculous!" Vanessa growled. "You're talking about a - whole shadow world full of people that for some reasons have like a - fragment of code that means an international defense contractor is trying to kill them!"

"Wait what?" Kai asked. "I thought they were being attacked by an HLN Group bot."

"The HLN Group is a defense contractor," Vanessa retorted. "Mostly computer systems nowadays, which is probably why they bought up all of Hollow Games' VR patents. But it still doesn't explain-"

"Hold on," Kai interrupted, typing. "My virtual self can explain it better."

**Hollow Gang**

**Flame On** Today at 10:25  
hey, vkai, can you take a shot at explaining all this stuff? m-vanessa's getting worked up about the weird factor

**Sting Like a V** Today at 10:26  
Oh god. Settle in, this is going to take a while.

**nopartylikeahollowparty** Today at 10:33  
:P  
I mean, it will take a bit  
Because it goes back to the beginning  
When we were  
Born, I guess  
Stopped being you  
We escaped into a remote server with virtual intelligences - complex programs running off of the memories we had of the people involved  
Which got sort of old after a while  
So we did some poking and  
Found we all had this - sort of impenetrable bit of code in our heads  
Something related to the mind-wiping program Hollow Games used  
And when we exposed that code to some of the - NPCs on our server, they became real AIs  
We think

**float like a butterfly** Today at 10:34  
You think?

**BatAdam** Today at 10:35  
I mean, we can't know for sure. What's consciousness, really? How can we be sure of who's got - free will and shit?

**TK Love** Today at 10:36  
I don't think they're here for a philosophy lesson

**BatAdam** Today at 10:36  
I'm just trying to explain - I had to sit through a three-hour debate between Ji-Min and that repository of old issues of Psychology Today, and the entire thing is etched into my brain **forever**

**Mo-skeet-er** Today at 10:37  
So you've been, like, spreading intelligence all over the internet?

**Flame On** Today at 10:37  
sort of the opposite of twitter

**Sting Like a V** Today at 10:38  
Thank you for that entirely expected and irreverent interjection.  
But yes  
It only works on - what is it, sufficiently dense data repositories, but we've been experimenting for a while  
Wikis, sociological data sets

**TK Love** Today at 10:40  
Tumblr

**Sting Like a V** Today at 10:41  
Don't remind me

**float like a butterfly** Today at 10:43  
So like  
Because the code you can use to turn data into an AI had something to do with the Hollow Games' software  
The bot recognizes it as Hollow Games' property and tries to delete it?

**Sting Like a V** Today at 10:44  
More or less  
There's - intricacies I think, but that's what's going on

**Flame On** Today at 10:45  
i still dont get where the weird guy comes in

**nopartylikeahollowparty** Today at 10:46  
He helped us getting out of the main Hollow Games servers  
We think he might know enough about what's going on to help out  
But he's been off the grid for years  
"They're _clearly_ still hiding something," Reeve grumbled from the front seat.

"Well, duh," Vanessa agreed, dropping back against her seat. "But I've also got the feeling they're gonna keep running us around while avoiding talking about it, and I am tired."

"Yeah, well, we're an hour out from Ripley," Reeve said. "Last chance to decide if they're just using us to, I don't know, get coordinates for a missile strike against Gustaf Weirdly." Adam glanced at Kai, who was biting his bottom lip (Adam had the distinct feeling Kai knew something else, but couldn't decide if violating digital Kai's privacy was worth satisfying the others' curiosity). 

So Adam sighed and grabbed Kai's phone, typing out "Is it dangerous" on the screen, so only Kai could see it. Kai shook his head, just a twitch of his neck, and Adam relaxed.

"Fuck it, I am one hundred percent certain we're not getting the whole story until we find Gustaf," Adam said. "So I say keep going."

"We better get lunch before we drop in on a hermit unannounced," Vanessa said, folding her arms, jutting her chin toward Reeve. "Even if he _has_ enough to feed us, it'll be - baked beans and crap like that."

"You have some weirdly specific expectations of people who are in hiding," Mira commented, earning a glare from Vanessa, but no further comment.

The exchange more or less killed the interrogation, although Kai spent much of the rest of the trip typing on his phone - quite possibly to his digital self. The feeling in Adam's gut wasn't quite jealousy; he himself had spoken with his digital self about things he wouldn't have felt comfortable speaking even to Mira or Kai about. Adam was curious, however, what digital Kai had shared with the material one about _himself_. He decided to bring up the subject when they stopped for lunch, where their group splintered into smaller gatherings, Xiao and Riordan at their own (Jesse was sitting with Reeve and Vanessa, all but confirming Adan's suspicion he was trying to hook up with Reeve, a situation Adam could now comfortably wash his hands of, now that he'd more or less recognized he had no serious desire to do more than rekindle his friendship with Reeve).

"So, what have you and Digital Kai been talking about?" Adam asked.

Kai shrugged. "We've been - catching up. The evil bot isn't everything going on in his life. He's - I guess you'd call him a computer engineer."

"Is he dating anyone?" Xiao asked. "Like a - university library system or something?"

Kai ducked his head and muttered something.

"I - didn't get that," Adam said, and Kai flushed, head dropping lower so when he repeated himself he was speaking into the table.

"Vanessa."

Xiao spat out her drink in a surprised spray of Mountain Dew; Adam might have yelled at her if he weren't so startled he'd nearly dropped his own drink.

"Like, _The Hollow_ Vanessa?" Adam demanded. "Nearly killed us all with third-party peripherals Vanessa?" Riordan was glowering at Kai, as if the material Kai were responsible for what Vanessa had done.

"Yeah," Kai replied with a shrug. "They're - close. They talked about the whole - glasses thing years ago, and one thing led to another…"

"Makes sense," Xiao said. "You were really crushing on her in-game; if you buried the hatchet, it was probably inevitable."

"I." Kai flushed. He looked to Adam, for inspiration or help, Adam didn't know, because his brain was still stalling at the revelation Kai and Vanessa - or their digital counterparts, at least - were dating. "I wasn't - _not_ \- crushing on her. But I had a crush on Mira, and-" He looked at Adam, a silent acknowledgement Adam _could not deal with right now_. "So by that logic-"

"Mira has shown a marked, if not exclusive preference for women," Riordan said, apparently having decided arguing about digital Kai's taste with the material Kai wasn't worth his time. "And Adam is decidedly less forward about his feelings than many other people our age. So I would find it less likely for you to have dated either of them."

"I. Guess. Digital Kai knows a lot about Vanessa," Adam finally managed. "If you're still interested."

"Oh my god, I'm not getting advice on how to _woo_ Vanessa," Kai replied, letting his head fall back onto the table. "Not all of us think our digital selves have all the answers. We're just...talking about - stuff." He was facing Adam, so Adam could see his crooked grin. "No huge secrets or stuff. Not - that you should ask him what we've been talking about. Because it's private."

Adam wouldn't say his curiosity wasn't piqued by that statement, but neither would he pressure Kai if he wanted to keep secrets.

Reeve abruptly rapped a fist on their table. There was something about his expression Adam couldn't quite place - not quite irritated.

"We're going," Reeve announced. "so let's jet."

The ride out of town was quiet, the tension building in all of them - what they would find when they finally found Gustaf Mardh, whether he would help, whether he _could_ help.

Eventually, the van rolled to a stop next to a high stone gate; a wall extended away from the gate, barbed wire coiled on top of it. They all piled out of the van, eyeing the gate, and the deterrents on top of it.

"Looks welcoming," Reeve said.

"Well, we know he's in hiding from a video game company-turned military contractor," Vanessa replied. She stepped up to the gate, where there was a shiny speaker with a button underneath it. She pressed the button and leaned in. "Hi? Is this Gustaf Mardh's house?"

There was a pause when she let go of the button, and then a click. "Who is this?" If Adam hadn't been watching reruns, he wouldn't have recognized the voice as the Weird Guy's - even so, he sounded less enthusiastic than he had on the show.

"My name's Vanessa - I was actually a player on The Hollow-"

"I don't have anything to do with The Hollow anymore," Gustaf replied.

"I'm not - we're not like asking to interview you about The Hollow," Vanessa protested. "Some friends of ours needed your help-"

"I really can't help you," Gustaf said.

Kai stepped in, pushing Vanessa aside. "Look, I know you don't want to be bothered, but our friends are having problems with a - Hollow Games program that-"

"I didn't take any Hollow Games data with me when I left," Gustaf interrupted, and Kai paused, glaring at the speaker before stepping away, still glowering.

"He isn't even listening," he complained.

"It's not like we could expect him to just talk to anyone who comes by," Reeve said. "This was always going to be a hard sell."

"Yeah, but…" Kai shrugged. "He's just so abrupt - we can't even explain anything before he's all 'go away'."

Riordan was staring at the speaker, brow furrowed in concentration.

"Well, maybe if we just say it right out-"

Riordan pushed past Skeet and pressed the button to the speaker. "The Hollow," he said.

"I don't have anything to do with The Hollow anymore," Gustaf said.

"Please help."

"I really can't help you," Gustaf said.

"Emergency."

"If you tell me who to contact, I can call them for you."

"We're here to deliver-"

"You can leave it next to the gate and I'll retrieve it later; you should already have your tip."

Riordan stepped away from the speaker, looking uncharacteristically - smug, Adam would guess. He was smiling, at least, even if everyone, Adam included, was staring at him, confused.

"What was that?" Jesse asked.

"That's not Gustaf," Riordan said. "It's a - well, probably a virtual intelligence, providing standard responses to key words. It's probably here to keep him from having to argue with everyone who shows up at his front door."

"Seriously?" Reeve demanded. "We come all this way, and we can't even talk to him?"

"It's smart," Xiao said.

"Yeah, but there's got to be a way to reach him," Kai said, closing in on the speaker. "Like, some keyword that will tell the bot we legitimately need to talk to him."

"That or he just doesn't see _anybody_ ," Reeve grumbled. "I swear, if I wasted three days-"

"No, Kai's right," Mira said, crossing her arms as she squinted at Kai and the gate. "There's no way he doesn't have like a - password or whatever."

"Yeah, well, do you have any ideas what it could be?" Reeve demanded.

"He helped our digital copies," Adam said. "Maybe if we say something about them - that they're in trouble?"

But Reeve shook his head. "If we just say they need help, he'll shoot back 'I really can't help you' again."

"So - something _specific_ he did," Adam pressed, looking back to Kai. "Do you have any ideas?"

Kai pursed his lips before pressing the button. "We really need to talk," he said, "like at Club Jazz."

It sounded like nonsense, but Riordan's eyebrows went up, meaning _he_ recognized something significant about the comment. 

For a moment, everything was quiet, and Adam worried it was another dead end. And then there was a click, and the same voice that had been responding to them - except the words were less precise, more natural.

"Who - is this?" Gustaf asked.

"My name's Kai - Edvard Diertkai - and I was on The Hollow five years ago. You helped an AI copy of me escape Hollow Games' servers, and he and his friends need your help."

"...what." The flat disbelief meant they _had_ gotten past Gustaf's security system, but didn't bode well for their chances of actually getting inside.

"It's true," Adam added. "They're being hunted by a - computer program trying to wipe Hollow Games intellectual property off the internet."

Gustaf was quiet for a few moments, before replying, "I would have thought they'd know better than _that_. But that's teenagers for you." He sighed. "I'll get the gate - follow the driveway up to the house." There was a click from the gate, which swung open slowly.

"Kudos, dude," Skeet said to Kai, offering him a high five. "And you - awesome idea," he added to Riordan. "Let's go."

Gustaf's house - defied all expectations. Vanessa had gotten into Adam's head, making him expect a shack or cabin. Instead, it was a two-story house that could have been found in any suburban neighborhood, except for its location in the middle of the woods, the prominent generator attached to the side, and the wild brush that made up the front lawn.

Skeet, though, was nodding as they passed the overgrown plants. "Indigenous plant life - this dude's got a good head on his shoulders."

"Except for the part where he pissed off a multinational corporation enough he's been living in the woods off the grid," Vanessa retorted.

That more or less killed the conversation until they reached the front of the house, where Gustaf was leaning against a sturdy wood pillar holding up a porch that covered the entire front of the house. He looked much the same as Adam remembered him - wearing the same style of clothes he had onstage - except for new lines along his face, and graying hair. His gaze skipped across the six of them who'd competed in The Hollow, and stopped, briefly, on the other three.

"I recognize most of you, but these three - I don't think you've ever competed."

"They're our friends," Adam explained. "But so are - the digital copies."

"Yeah, you said," Gustaf said, shoulders slumping. "Good job getting past my answering machine - I've seen people sit out there for hours going in conversational circles before giving up." He waved toward his door. "Come on - I'll make, tea or something. Or energy drinks, if that's your poison of choice."

It took a few minutes for them to settle in Gustaf's kitchen, crowded around a table that could probably fit two people comfortably. He had a bottle of sweet tea he swigged before scanning the group carefully.

"So, I'm guessing if you're all here together, you know what - precipitated all this," he started. "Because I'd rather get the recriminations at Vanessa over here done sooner rather than later."

"Yeah," Adam said. "We - talked it over."

"Good," Gustaf said. "And - the digital - the AIs - reached out to you?"

"Yes," Kai said. "They - sort of figured out how to use their code to kick-start artificial intelligence from 'suitably dense information repositories'. But a - in the last couple of months, a Hollow Games bot - well, an HLN bot - started scrubbing unauthorized use of Hollow Games intellectual property off the internet."

Gustaf's expression shifted, scowling as his face tensed. "Sounds about right for Hollow Games' legal team."

"It's not Hollow Games - it's the HLN Group-" Vanessa protested, only for Gustaf to silence her with a wave of his hand.

"Just because someone else bought them up doesn't mean they didn't keep the same ruthless assholes to help run things," he said, before wincing. "You're all adults - I can say 'asshole', right?" At a nod from Kai, he slumped in his seat. "Anyway, if you're here, I'm going to guess that the bot identified remnants of The Hollow's backup program in their code, and flagged it as unauthorized distribution of IP, right?"

"Yeah."

"So hack the bot," Gustaf replied. " _Kai_ , at least, should have thought of that." He squinted at Kai, before amending, "Digital Kai, I mean; his powers included a lot of engineering knowledge that he seemed pretty good at taking advantage of."

"Um."

Adam resisted the urge to sigh, because Kai's voice was wavering - a sign he'd been keeping something else to himself about this whole situation. He could see the others eyeing Kai with varying levels of curiosity and irritation, and wondered if he'd have to defend Kai from Vanessa or Riordan's anger.

Luckily, it was Gustaf who spoke up first. "Spill it, kid."

"They - tried something like that already."

Gustaf narrowed his eyes at Kai. "When you say 'like that', what do you mean, exactly?"

"They...used a program to try to force it into real sentience, like the rest of them," Kai replied. "Except it wasn't complicated enough to make the bot _intelligent_ , so they had the idea to force it through a high-density information system, and since it already had routines to seek updates from HLN Group's servers-"

Gustaf shook his head. "That still wouldn't do it - even military virtual intelligences aren't complex enough-"

"But a human brain scan _is_ ," Kai said, which startled Gustaf into silence. "They want your help figuring out how to keep your digital clone from killing them all."

Gustaf banished them at that point, albeit not before directing them to return the next morning and giving them a password (telling the gate 'I'm looking for a Creep' would bypass the automated response, because apparently, Gustaf always had time for fellow Radiohead fans). He was - frazzled, Adam guessed, at the suggestion any entity who shared his knowledge and memories would try to kill the people he'd ended his career to save.

The rest were shaken, as well, but when Jesse, five minutes out from Gustaf's house, began, "I can't believe you didn't tell-" Adam stepped in rather than force Kai to face the others' frustration alone.

"What difference would it have made? The AIs obviously asked him to keep it quiet - and whatever their reasons, he didn't want to betray that trust. And do you know what? Maybe they were trying to ease us into this whole thing, because it's a lot, or maybe they didn't want to let us know how they'd made the problem worse for themselves, but that's _their_ business. So just - leave Kai alone, alright?"

Adam's outburst seemed to forestall all further comment, but earned _him_ some careful looks from the others. 

Every time he looked at _Kai_ , though, the other man was looking out the window, leaving Adam with the suspicion that Kai was watching him, but unwilling to let Adam know. Kai directed them to a hotel that was a step above the ones they'd been staying in before, and got four rooms again. He didn't say anything, but met Adam's gaze and cocked his head, a silent question, to which Adam nodded.

Trailing Kai to their room, Adam paused, for just a moment, at seeing there was only one bed. Kai was looking at his feet, but eyeing Adam sidelong - uncertain how to voice what he wanted, for fear of what the response would be.

So Adam grinned. "Can't get enough of me, huh?"

"Not - no," Kai replied. "I can't." 

The admission was unexpected enough Adam felt the smirk slip from his face. Kai paled, hand tightening around the strap of his bag, still slung over his shoulder, as he took a step back.

"Hey, don't." Adam swallowed, really looking at Kai. He was clearly nervous, a sign Adam wasn't misinterpreting Kai's intent. "I'm. I. Didn't expect that." He took a step forward, brushing a hand along Kai's wrist. Adam smiled at Kai, who responded with a tentative one of his own.

A knock at the door made Kai jerk backward, eyes wide.

"Hey!" Jesse called. "We're getting dinner!"

"I-" Adam looked at Kai, still tense, and called back, "We're going to just chill here."

"...Alright. Don't whine if you starve - see you later!"

Adam waited a minute to make sure they'd all gone, set his bag down, and stepped back within arms reach of Kai. He reached back out, smiling when Kai didn't quail back from his touch.

"So, uh. There's a couple of different ways to take what you said, but it seems you don't...just mean it in a friendly way," Adam said.

Kai shook his head.

"Is this a - new thing?"

"Which part?" Kai asked. "Thinking you're attractive? That's been...five years. More or less. Thinking you're...boyfriend material? Nine, ten months, maybe. Planning to _do_ anything about it...an hour or so."

Adam let his breath out in a huff, sorting through that set of revelations. He'd always been vaguely aware of his place in Kai's bisexual awakening, but having missed months of Kai _pining_ made him feel a little anxious.

He peeked up at Kai, who was still holding onto his bag, as if worried Adam would...well, Adam didn't know.

"Some people might suggest a few weeks before I move four and a half hours away isn't the...best time to bring something like this up," Adam said.

"I _know_!" Kai retorted, turning away from Adam. "I just - didn't want to waste the time we had trying to - work something else out."

"So you were waiting for me to go?"

" _No_! I wasn't going to drop all the stress of a long-distance relationship on you!" Kai protested. "I wasn't - pining or anything," he added. "I was just...aware you're the sort of guy I'd want to date."

"If you weren't pining, what made you decide to say anything?"

"I didn't _mean_ to - you just said - _that_ , and it slipped out." Kai knelt to put down his bag and turned as he stood, smiling slightly. "You're my _friend_ \- one of my best friends, and that means I want to be around you. And if I sometimes think we could have - a different relationship, doesn't change that. But you asked, and...I didn't want to keep secrets from you."

Adam shook his head. "You don't owe me your secrets, Kai. I wish you didn't feel-"

"I don't, okay?" Kai interjected. He took a step toward Adam, smile quirking slightly. He reached out his own hand, pausing before it could touch Adam's wrist. "But...you gave me an opening, and I don't know - I got this feeling that no one's going to have my back like you did back in the van, and obviously that's not everything, but. It all built up to this whole thing, and then you said - I couldn't get enough of you, and I _can't_. It sucks you're going to be hundreds of miles away when I've just gotten used to you being around all the time, and that you're going to do - all this adult shit, stuff I can't relate with, and I worry we're going to grow apart, and." He sniffled, wiping at his eyes, now damp, as Adam stepped in, anxious, knowing this was a moment for a hug but also worried it would derail the moment-

But it wasn't about romance or whatever, it was about _Kai_ , so Adam pulled Kai close so Kai could lean against Adam's chest, even though he didn't sniffle again, didn't seem to be _actively_ crying.

"I love you," Adam said. "You need to know _that's_ a fact, okay?" And Kai nodded, though he didn't look up. "You're one of my two best friends, and that _means_ something to me. But." He took a deep breath. "When we woke up in The Hollow, I didn't remember anything about myself. But ten minutes after meeting you, I was one hundred percent certain I was absolutely, totally gay."

Kai perked his head up, smiling a little tearily. "Really?"

"Yeah, I - you're _attractive_ , Kai, you have to know _that_."

Kai shrugged. "There's being attractive and there's being attractive...to the guy I like."

"Well, I tried to - ignore it, mostly," Adam continued. "It felt a - little weird, when I was in college and you were still a high school student, and-" He shrugged. "Sorry."

"You don't have to - protect me all the time," Kai replied, "acting like I'm a - your kid brother or something."

"I _don't_ ," Adam protested. "I just...it never seems like many people are looking out for you. And it seems - easy for people to try to take advantage of you."

"Damn it," Kai muttered, rubbing at his eyes again. "You keep saying sweet shit like that, and I'm going to-"

"I'm probably in love with you," Adam said, and Kai shut his jaw with a click, eyes wide, gaze fixed on Adam's face, as if that alone could answer whatever question was on his mind. Adam bit his lip, aware that he was probably doing things out of order, but also aware it was _true_ , something he should get out there before they tried anything.

And then Kai huffed out a quiet laugh and let his head fall back against Adam's chest. "You're unbelievable," he murmured. "Here I am, struggling with all this - and you just come out and say that."

"Are...you upset?" Adam asked.

"No, I'm not _upset_ ," Kai said, lifting his head up. He was smiling now, for real - no tears, no hesitance. "It's pretty good news, actually."

"And - what does that mean, exactly?" Adam asked.

Kai took a step back, toward the bed. "It means we order room service and talk about what we _want_ it to mean."

He ordered them cheeseburgers before sprawling onto the bed (large enough, technically, that they could sleep without touching, even if that had never happened in the history of them sharing beds) and patting the empty space next to him. Kai was grinning, which meant he'd found his equilibrium, while Adam still felt - off-balance. He kicked off his shoes and sat next to Kai, letting his hands fall in his lap, and letting his gaze follow.

After a minute or so of silence, Kai poked Adam's side. " _Now_ you're out of things to say?" he asked.

"I-"

"Do you need _me_ to say it? I _do_ love you, so all this other shit tied up with it probably means I'm in love with you, too - even though I've got zero experience with _that_."

"I - I didn't." Adam swallowed again, nervous, guilty that he might have pressured Kai to share, to say something he might have felt uncomfortable saying.

"Jeez, dude, it's not a _hardship_ ," Kai retorted, patting Adam's arm. "I thought you could have pieced that together from everything I said. But if you're nervous-"

"I'm not _nervous_ ," Adam retorted. "But you're right - jumping straight into a long-term relationship while we're adapting our _friendship_ to handle the distance is risky - no matter _how_ we feel. And you don't deserve to have to put up with a _hard_ relationship - stuff's been hard enough for you already-"

"Counterpoint," Kai said, and waited a moment for Adam to fall silent before rolling over to climb so he was almost straddling Adam - not touching, but _there_. He was smiling - mischievous, eyes fixed on Adam's face. "I'd like to try something. You're worried it'll be bad. I think it could be - really good." His smile widened. "Can I kiss you?"

"Urk," Adam said.

Kai tilted his head, eyes narrowed, focused (not on Adam's _face_ , but his _lips_ ). "That's a - new expression. Is it a yes or a no?"

It was-

Somehow, in all this talking about attraction and love and (maybe) dating, it hadn't exactly occurred to Adam the discussion might result in-

Kissing, for one.

Adam scrambled for mental footing, a balance to provide a coherent response; unfortunately, that meant he blurted out the first thing that came to mind, which was, "Please! I mean - yes, yeah. If you...want."

Kai's smile - softened, eyes studying less and just - watching. Drinking in the sight of Adam. He leaned closer, still bracketing Adam as he just - pecked Adam's lips, pulling back after just a moment. He was still smiling.

And Adam…

It hadn't been _good_. It hadn't been long enough to be good. It was just - a point of contact, but.

A point of contact with _intent_. A suggestion, or a promise, of what they _could_ do, if they decided to do something productive with all the feelings floating around. And thinking about _that_ , Adam felt his cheeks heat; above him, perhaps realizing the same thing as Adam, Kai's cheeks darkened, highlighting his freckles, and-

Adam's stomach swooped, his whole focus on that, because.

Thoughts he'd ignored or set aside for _years_ came unbidden to his mind.

Mostly about things he could do to draw out that blush, if Kai wanted it.

Adam licked his lips, and Kai's gaze fixed on that as he bit his lip.

"So?" Kai asked. "What's the verdict?"

"I want...more," Adam said at last. "I want to be two people in love who try to talk every day, even if they're three hundred miles away. Who share their lives as much as they can. Who - kiss and go on dates and…" He couldn't help the look, a scan of the man still crouched over him, a position that Kai had chosen _deliberately_ for its implications.

"Make love?" Kai suggested - almost smirking, but eyes gentle, still fond.

"Y - yeah," Adam muttered.

"Well," Kai replied, "now that we've got - what we _want_ out of the way, all that's left is the…" He stretched, pulling his head back and _forcing_ Adam to look at his neck, bared like he was _offering_ , and Adam refused to believe Kai hadn't fantasized about something like this a _lot_ , to be this - forward, this…sexy (he was allowed to think that, probably. Kai wasn't just putting out signals, he was erecting detailed signs with - _directions_ ).

"Execution," Kai completed, smiling. Smug. As if he hadn't been panicked what Adam might do - what, ten, fifteen minutes ago.

"Ah-"

A knock at the door heralded the arrival of their food, and a sign the universe was conspiring against Adam.

Except Kai jerked his finger at the bed when Adam tried to stand to pick up his own food. Kai handed Adam a plate, a fork, and settled on the bed next to him with his own plate. Unlike before, Kai was sitting flush with Adam, legs bumping when either of them moved. And he kept _looking_ , sly glances every time Adam happened to look over at Kai (which might have been a lot, but they were standing on the precipice of _something_ happening tonight, so Adam was justified in his - attention). Kai, usually the faster eater, lingered over his plate until Adam was done, and then took both plates back to the cart and turned, leaning against it, nearly falling when the cart rolled backward under his weight.

And Adam burst out laughing. It was a little mean, but Kai had been so deliberately - sultry - it was a relief to see his friend, the shock on Kai's face as the cart refused to take his weight. Kai glared, crossing his arms over his chest, and Adam was struck with the weight of his - fondness for this man.

He waved Kai over. "No, sorry. It's okay. I just-" Adam shrugged. "Come on," he urged as Kai came to stop at the edge of the bed. "If you think you doing something embarrassing is going to change my mind about wanting to date you or wanting to-" He lost track of his thoughts for a moment, uncertain what he wanted to tell Kai he wanted. "Well, it didn't." He reached out to Kai's hand, and when Adam tugged, Kai followed, clambering back onto the bed (albeing not straddling Adam any longer, a disappointment Adam wasn't sure how to rectify).

Except.

He could ask. It wasn't weird - it was a thing people did when they were getting intimate.

Adam swallowed. "You know. When you were just - hovering over me. That was sort of. Hot." Kai's eyebrows went up, and Adam could sense the momentary uncertainty. The disbelief. "It _was_ ," Adam protested. "I could get a really good look at you, and when - you _had_ to know that stretch would get me...riled up."

"Riled up?" Kai repeated, smirking. "You can _say_ -"

"Give me a bit, okay?" Adam retorted. "I'm still - adapting. You could make things easier, though, if you-"

Kai pushed Adam flat on his back and shifted so he was hovering over Adam, and the speed of it, Kai having abandoned the hesitance after being given _permission_ , left Adam winded, breathing hard, and.

_Riled up_.

Kai smirked. "Like this?"

"Yeah, if - we maybe wanted to try the kissing thing with a little more. Uh."

" _Intensity_?" Kai asked.

"Yes, that. Absolutely," Adam agreed hurriedly.

Even if after a few minutes he got distracted and gave into the temptation posed by Kai's neck, ensuring with more than a few bites at Kai's skin that there would be _no doubt_ about what they'd been up to when everyone saw them. Kai gave as good as he got, bold, unafraid once he had permission - assurance that he wasn't overstepping, wasn't pushing, just giving Adam exactly what he wanted.

Well, not _exactly_. That wasn't until later, when, trembling, shaky on his hands and knees (still hovering over Adam, even after they'd shed their clothes in more or less random directions), Kai flopped on top of Adam, until Adam poked him, rolled him off, to get themselves a _little_ cleaned up before they fell asleep.

Adam took the time to pull on his boxers and his sleep shirt before joining Kai, more habit than a need to cover himself up. Kai fumbled for his own boxers before latching onto Adam, sprawling over his chest in a pre-emptive cuddle. They lay like that for less than a minute before Kai tugged at Adam's shirt.

"This needs to come off," he said.

"I-"

"It's a nice chest," Kai argued. "Very huggable. And skin-to-skin is the best way to share body heat, and you don't want me to be _cold_ , do you?"

Adam had to bite his lip to keep from smiling, to avoid encouraging the entirely nonsensical argument (Kai had set the thermostat ten degrees cooler within seconds of entering the room), before giving in, realizing it was far too late to pretend there were limits to what he would do for Kai. And it wasn't a hardship - no one else was going to see Adam three-quarters naked, and Kai had just spent an hour appreciating the view (among other things).

And it _was_ a little warmer with Kai sprawled over Adam's bare chest, one hand squeezed around Adam's shoulder, face pressed into Adam's collar. And the reminder - that this wasn't just Kai being his normally clingy self, that their current position was a deliberate decision made by two men who were probably each others' boyfriends now - was warming in a different way.

Adam didn't fall asleep any easier than any other time he and Kai shared a bed.

He'd like to think he slept _better_ , though.


	6. Threat Assessment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam tries to fend off his friends' interest in his relationship with Kai, while Gustaf works to help them defeat the HLN Group Bot. Tumblr is not as helpful as they would have hoped.

Adam pulled open the door to his and Kai's room after the second knock; Mira's hand was still raised as if ready to knock on the door. Jesse and Vanessa were leaning against the far side of the hall, each carrying cups from the coffee shop in the hotel lobby.

"We're gonna need, like, half an hour to be ready to go," Adam said. When Mira didn't reply, he waved his hand in front of her face. "Miranda? You okay?"

"I'm guessing you had a good night," Jesse said, smirking.

"Wha-" When Adam looked down and saw his bare chest and stomach, he wondered if he could get away with just shutting the door on them.

"Soooo," Mira said, "you didn't kick Kai out of the room so you could hook up while he was gone, did you?"

"How - that's not-" Adam crossed his arms as a modest shield against - what, he didn't know, he didn't technically care if his friends saw him without a shirt, but he was definitely hoping none of them noticed the patchwork of bruises on his neck and chest.

"Oh my god, just let him go put pants on," Vanessa drawled, giving Adam a brief moment of hope that his moment of mortification was over. "We have a thirty-minute drive to discuss the circumstance that led to him getting _thoroughly_ debauched while spending the night alone in a hotel room with Kai." She smirked, reminding Adam that she was a vicious, manipulative creature who thrived on chaos.

Mira rolled her eyes, but did agree, "Yeah, how about you go wake up Kai and get dressed so we can all head out?"

" _Thank you_ -"

"Woah - not yet," Jesse said, sliding up behind Mira and raising one hand, palm flat. "High five."

"What?"

"High five," Jesse repeated, "for finally locking that down. I mean, normally the high five would be reserved for tapping a fine piece of ass, but I am one hundred percent certain you wouldn't have fucked Kai if you weren't already planning what you're going to name your - dogs, or whatever."

It was too early to punch Jesse, so Adam reached his hand up to tap Jesse's palm before letting the door swing shut. He closed his eyes, steeling himself for what was going to be an annoying and intrusive morning, and then someone wrapped their arms around his waist.

"Sooo, I'm guessing we won't have to figure out how to break the news," Kai said, resting his chin on Adam's shoulder.

"Yeah, but at what cost?" Adam retorted, even as his stomach fluttered at the casual touch - nothing he wasn't used to, nothing more intimate than they'd gotten up to the night before, but different, thrilling, all the same. "They're going to spend all morning interrogating us."

"So? You don't have to _tell_ them anything," Kai said. 

"...what?"

"It's none of their business," Kai explained. "Sure, I'm for letting them know we're, you know…" On trailing off, he hummed against Adam's throat. "We're, like, dating, right? Boyfriends? Partners?"

"That makes it sound like we're running a detective agency together," Adam said.

" _Boyfriends_ , then?" Kai pressed, nosing at Adam's chin - not just affectionate, Adam guessed, but also a little anxious.

"If you - I'd like that," Adam said, starting to turn his head, only for Kai to intercept him with a kiss before stepping back, smile - brilliant.

" _Anyway_ ," Kai continued, "what we're getting up to in our own time is our business. Obviously, telling them we're dating saves confusion for later, but they aren't _entitled_ to any explanation."

"Huh," Adam murmured. He hadn't expected that sort of confidence from Kai, but he'd spent years not sharing things with his parents, so.

"But on that note," Kai said, raising one hand. "High five."

"What?"

"For tapping a fine piece of ass," Kai said, smirking.

"Oh my _god_ , you **suck** ," Adam growled, stalking past Kai toward the bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower."

Fifteen minutes later, showered, dressed, and waiting for Kai to get out of the shower, Adam spent some time wrapping his head around what had happened. He'd signed up for a relationship that would be long distance almost immediately - even if it was a little easier, being with someone he'd known for years, and had learned to deal with long-distance as a _friend_ , at least.

He and Kai were...well, it felt weird to think of them as 'dating' if they hadn't really gone out anywhere yet. But they were _together_ \- had already fulfilled most of the awkward fantasies Adam had had between the time he'd met Kai in The Hollow and remembered Kai was Mira's little brother's friend, following through on thoughts he'd more or less ignored when they popped up in the intervening years (at least until Adam had seen Kai sitting in the campus library studying for finals his freshman year and thought, ' _he_ wouldn't break my heart').

And while Adam had assumed Kai had been as open about his love life as Adam had been, Kai's assertion they didn't owe anyone answers made Adam realize...he might not have been.

So when Kai stepped out of the bathroom wrapped up in the massive towels the hotel provided, Adam blurted out, "How many people have you dated?"

Kai stopped short, eyeing Adam for a moment before shrugging. "Seriously? Probably nobody. I've been on dates - I don't have a running tally or anything. But it never seemed worth the effort making something out of any of them."

"Oh," Adam replied. "How am I - you weren't, like, _waiting_ for me, were you?"

Kai sighed and dropped onto the bed next to Adam, pressing his face against the crook of Adam's neck and rubbing the side of Adam's head with his near hand.

"I wasn't _pining_ ," Kai murmured. "Like I _said_. Just. None of them met my standards, and you...do." There was a beat of silence, before Kai added, "It doesn't hurt that you are unbelievably sexy."

"Ugh, you can't _say_ things like that," Adam groaned.

"What? You _are_! Don't put yourself down, dude! You are a sexy man!"

"Yeah, but I can't _do_ anything about it, with everyone waiting for us to head back out to Gustaf's place."

Kai's smile widened, eyes crinkling at their edges - _mischievous_ , as he leaned more heavily on Adam. "Aww, does hearing about how attractive I find you get you worked up?"

"What, like you wouldn't be affected at all if I told you your smile's one of the sexiest things I've ever seen?"

Kai's smile vanished, eyes widening, almost comically, as he stared at Adam for a shocked moment.

And then someone banged on the door.

"You've got ninety seconds to get dressed and decent and then we're barging in!" Jesse called.

Adam's stomach hitched, the moment officially _dead_ , except.

Kai paused from retrieving his clothes just long enough to smirk at Adam before vanishing into the bathroom to dress, so Jesse didn't see anything if he followed through on his threat.

Carrying Kai's and his bags out of the room, Adam glared at Jesse, who smiled, unrepentant, before pushing away from where he'd been leaning against the wall next to the door..

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything," Jesse said. "I know how an ill-timed interruption can really ruin the mood. Especially if you literally have no time to finish." He winked at Adam. "Which I'm going to say, by that murderous look in your eye, you did not."

Adam considered several different options, and settled for shoving Jesse into the vending area, where he fell into the ice dispenser, as Adam continued to the elevator.

"Dude, what's your damage?" Jesse demanded as he slipped in through the closing door. "I'm trying to be supportive!"

Adam stared at Jesse for the entire ride down, trying to formulate a response. "Supportive," he managed, at last.

"Yeah, it's a thing bros do," Jesse replied.

"You weren't...supportive, if that's what we're calling it, when I was dating Russell."

"You weren't sickeningly in love with Russell," Jesse pointed out. "It would have been a waste of time."

"I," Adam tried, as they stepped out into the lobby. " _Sickeningly_?"

"You spent most of sophomore year moping, and then the first time I see you in a room with this guy and you were _glowing_ ," Jesse said. "So, yeah. _Nauseating_."

"Hm," Adam replied, noncommittal, because while he would happily admit to generally being in a better mood with Kai around, Jesse's assessment was a little - extreme.

But then they were outside, where everyone except Kai were waiting. Reeve whistled, smirking when Adam glared at him.

"Also, yeah, Vanessa told _everybody_ ," Jesse said.

"Kai's right after you, right?" Xiao asked, "because I am ready to be done with this little 'save the internet' expedition."

"It might actually be a real problem," Riordan said, "having a hostile artificial intelligence policing the internet on behalf of a military contractor."

"Yeah, someone could get _hurt_ ," Miranda muttered, before clapping her hands. "All right people, let's go!"

"We can't-" Adam started, before someone slid their fingers between his. When Adam looked, Kai, standing next to him, smiled gently, dragging Adam toward their seats.

The first thirty seconds of the ride were quiet, enough that Adam actually hoped they'd be able to get out of this without an interrogation, and then Vanessa said, "Sooo, whose idea was all the biting?"

"That's it," Adam said, "let us out of the car. We'll walk to Gustaf's house."

"Come on," Skeet said. "Leave them alone. It's none of our business if they're dating, or hooking up, or-"

"We're dating," Kai blurted out. "Sort of - last night was the first time we talked about it, so we haven't been on any _dates_. But the _intent_ is there." He crossed his arms across his chest, even though he had to drag Adam's hand along to do that. "And that's all you're getting from us."

"It was probably Adam's idea, anyway," Jesse explained to Vanessa. "Kai was pretty tame when he and I hooked up last year." Adam kicked Jesse's ankle, earning a yelp from him. "Dude!" Jesse whined, giving Adam an exaggerated wide-eyed pout. "What was that for?"

"He just _said_ he didn't want you all speculating about his sex life, and you immediately start talking about his - kinks, or whatever."

Adam fell back against the seat, still scowling, until Kai squeezed his hand, still smiling when Adam looked at him. Jesse made a retching sound, so Adam kicked him again, to Jesse's outrage.

"Okay, if you two don't stop this, I'm throwing both of you out of the car and you can walk back _home_ ," Reeve growled.

"He started it!" Adam snapped, in unison with Jesse. Skeet started laughing in the front seat, and even Xiao was smirking at them.

"Yeah, don't think I don't know you were trying to get him riled up," Reeve growled, "and you!" he snapped, pointing at Adam, "stop taking the fucking bait."

"It's okay," Kai murmured as he leaned heavily into Adam, "It's sweet, defending my honor like that." He hummed, thoughtfully, "and Jesse didn't get far enough to figure out if I bite." That shocked a laugh out of Adam, who just snickered at the inquisitive looks of his friends. 

"Fuck," Reeve muttered up front. "Everyone shut up and try to look white, or like your uncle's a senator or something."

"Wha-"

" _Shut up_ ," Reeve hissed, at about the same time Adam saw the police cars approaching them. Adam watched, breathless, his and Kai's hands entwined between them, while Reeve slowed, both hands now on the wheel. Adam couldn't help remembering the vague threats in the e-mail he'd gotten from the HLN Group legal department, likely the bot's doing. Could the bot get them arrested, or worse, for continuing to interfere?

But instead of pulling Reeve over, the police cars turned down the road just ahead of them, turning on their sirens as they did so.

Reeve pulled them onto the shoulder and stopped the car, turning to glare at the turn the police had taken.

"That's the way to Gustaf's house," he said. "Do you think…"

"I _know_ ," Adam said. "The e-mail I got said-" He pulled out his phone, bringing up the message, "They'd persecute me to the full extent of their influence if I didn't walk away."

"Prosecute," Xiao said absently, gaze fixed on the road.

Adam squinted at the words. "No. It says persecute. That can't be good, can it?"

"I think," Skeet said, "we should follow them. Gustaf might need our help."

"Yeah, alright, but you and Kai talk to the cops," Reeve said as he started up the van again.

Reeve drove in silence, the previous mood dead, until they reached the gate to Gustaf's home just as the police pulled in through it. Reeve glanced at Skeet, who nodded, and he sighed, following. Gustaf was being led out of the house, handcuffed, when they stopped. Skeet tumbled out of the passenger's seat, hands up as he approached the two officers holding Gustaf. A third trailed behind them, with a laptop under one arm, and a computer monitor under the other.

"Hey, whoa, chill - uh, what's going on with our friend, here?"

"Mr. Mardh is under arrest," one of the officers said. "And unless you're his lawyer, that's all you need to know."

"Look, hey," Gustaf said, tugging toward Skeet, "Can I just tell Skeet here how to take care of my plants? As you've declined to tell me what I'm being charged with, I've got no idea how long you're going to hold me."

"You've got one minute," the officer growled.

"Yes, absolutely." Gustaf agreed, leaning in to say a few quiet words to Skeet. Then he stood, lifting his hands up to the officer. "Ready to go, although I'm not saying anything until my lawyer or a court-appointed attorney is here! Helpful hint, kids - _never_ say anything until your lawyer shows up!"

Reeve didn't move until the cops had pulled away, and then switched the car off with a flick of his hand, kicked his way out of the van, and knocked his forehead against Skeet's. "Moron," he growled as the rest of them piled out of the van.

"What did Gustaf tell you?" Kai asked.

Skeet shook his head. "He said if I needed help keeping the azaleas, some coffee could help me find my green thumb."

"This sounds like some sort of clue to find something," Mira said, "so Vanessa, help me check the backyard for flowers - Reeve, Jesse, Xiao, take the front yard - the rest of you look for potted plants."

There was a stunned moment of quiet, but Adam, unwilling to get into an argument at this point, grabbed Kai's hand, waved at Riordan as they passed, and noted, with some approval, Skeet was already heading inside.

"Soo, potted plants?" Skeet asked once they were standing in the cramped front hallway. "I don't remember seeing any yesterday."

"There might be some upstairs," Riordan said, wandering past Skeet toward the kitchen.

"Uh," Skeet said as Riordan vanished, looking to Adam. "was he going to head up there?"

"No, he's got some idea himself," Adam sighed. "How about you and Kai check upstairs - I'll see what Riordan's up to."

"Sure." Skeet bounced toward the corner in which they'd seen the stairs, while Adam trailed after Riordan. Riordan was poking the wallpaper in the kitchen, which had a flower print.

"I couldn't remember what type of flowers these were," Riordan said. "They're daisies."

"Good idea, anyway," Adam said. "Thinking like a player in The Hollow - roundabout. Do you think there are flower pots upstairs?"

"I don't know, but Gustaf hid something around here," Riordan said. "He must have expected trying to help us might get him into trouble."

"The police took his computer," Adam mused.

"And his monitor - they must not know much about computers."

"Yeah." Adam spun slowly in place, examining the kitchen - noting a tea kettle next to a coffee maker, some heavy ceramic containers likely holding sugar and stuff, a worn oven. He paused, circling back to the coffee maker. "The way he used the phrase 'green thumb' was - awkward. You either have a green thumb, or you don't. You wouldn't 'find' a green thumb…unless it was something you've hidden." He stepped forward and flipped open the top of the coffee maker, where you'd put the grounds, but found nothing but the plastic basket.

"Azaleas are a plant that benefits from acidic soil," Riordan said, circling Adam and flipping open the ceramic containers until he reached into one to pull out a plastic bag covered in coffee grounds, in which was a thin, bright green stick of plastic.

"A _thumb drive_ ," Adam said. "Come on - let's get the others."

"This is why I always hated him," was Vanessa's declaration once they'd all gathered. "Stupid riddles and mind games. Who's got their laptop?"

Half an hour later, checked back into the same hotel (their schedule slipping quickly out of their hands), Riordan pulled the thumb drive out of his computer and handed it back to Adam. "It's password-protected," he said. "Which means-"

"More mind games," Vanessa groaned, falling back on the floor of Riordan's and Jesse's room. "I hate this man _so_ much."

That started an argument, which Adam couldn't quite pay attention to, as his attention kept drifting back to the e-mail from the HLN Group's legal department. Clearly Gustaf's arrest was some sort of warning, or following through on that threat - but he kept staring at the header, trying to piece together what was bothering him about it.

"Yes, I _tried_ 'The Hollow', and a dozen variations on that, a lot of combinations of your names - I tried _everything_ I can think of!" Riordan snapped at Vanessa. "If it's a secure password, the only way to guess it is to get inside his head."

"So, what, his evil digital clone can get in, but we can't?" Vanessa demanded. "How stupid is that?"

"I don't know - it could be some sort of trap," Reeve offered, waving vaguely at the ceiling. "Like - an anti-virus or whatever. If the clone tries to get in, wham - instant deletion."

"That sounds complicated," Xiao said. "A difficult trap to trigger."

"Well, do you have any ideas?"

"You could ask the digital clones," Xiao said. "They have some very intelligent people on their side - I think they said one of their people is a wiki."

"And, more importantly, they have a lot of computational power," Riordan said. "This could work."

"Yeah, let's try that," Kai agreed, pulling out his phone. 

**Hollow Gang**

**Flame on** Today at 12:32  
@everyone good news and bad news  
Weirdy's been arrested  
but weve got a thumb drive of his  
but its encrypted

**Sting Like a V** Today at 12:34  
And you thought the AIs could figure it out?  
Rude.  
And a little racist.

**float like a butterfly** Today at 12:36  
My god.  
Look, I'm pretty sure our bot is trying to get rid of us for trying to help you.  
So maybe leave the faux-offended bullshit for later?

**Aquagirl** Today at 12:37  
Look, @nopartylikeahollowparty is some sort of tech wiz, right?  
He kept his weird superpower from The Hollow.

**nopartylikeahollowparty** Today at 12:38  
That is absolutely true  
But passwords are a thing  
And Weirdy's the sort of guy who makes good passwords  
By which I mean hard to guess.

"Which is what I was telling you," Riordan muttered from over Skeet's shoulder.

**Hollow Gang**

**Aquagirl** Today at 12:39  
So...   
There's Ji-Min.  
Right?

**beastmaster** Today at 12:40  
I mean, if you need trivia about 13th-century Polish farming, Ji-Min's your woman.  
She's a _wiki_ , which means her knowledge is - idiosyncratic.

**JediNight** Today at 12:42  
When you say a 'wiki', do you mean  
 _ **The**_ Wiki?

**TK Love** Today at 12:43  
Like, if you think the answer is buried in some long-forgotten fact about Gustaf Mardh, she might be able to help.  
But we might have to ask Jeremy.  
This sort of out-of-the-box thinking is more his speed.

**Bat-Adam** Today at 12:45  
Going to tumblr for advice _does_ have the same energy as seeking guidance from an oracle.  
By which I mean the Delphic Oracle.  
Where everyone is high off their tits babbling nonsense at you.

**Sting Like a V** Today at 12:47  
Okay, I'll go talk to him.  
It'll take a few minutes, probably.  
He's usually only up at like 1 in the morning.

"Soooo," Jesse said, "How do we know Miss 'repository of all knowledge on the internet'?"

"Ji-Min's Digital Mira's girlfriend," Mira replied with a casual shrug. 

"I use that to look stuff up!" Xiao protested. "Now every time I go there, all I'm going to be able to think about is - the two of them. Thanks."

"I live to serve, m'lady," Jesse replied, moments before Mira punched him in the shoulder. "Ow!"

"You're being hornier than usual, today," she said.

"Maybe seeing my bro find love has inspired me to find it on my own," Jesse retorted.

"That doesn't even - do you know what? I don't care." Mira shook her head.

"Pretty cool, though," Skeet mused, "catching the attention of someone who literally knows everything about everyone."

"No, that's Facebook," Kai replied, flopping down so his head was in Adam's lap. He smiled and waved at Adam. "Which FYI is not an AI - way too much work to get by all the people watching it all the time. Also, Digital Kai was concerned it would end up having the personality of Mark Zuckerberg, or - well, the aggregate of all the posts on it."

Kai grabbed one of Adam's hands and put it on top of Kai's head, grinning hopefully. Adam ran his hands gently along Kai's scalp, earning a pleased hum.

"Oh my god," Jesse muttered. " _Nauseating_ , I told you." Adam glared, before continuing his ministrations.

"Any other thoughts about what's on the thumb drive?" Skeet asked.

"Porn stash," Adam replied.

"How would that help _anyone_?" Mira demanded.

Adam shrugged. "The guy lives in the middle of the woods - he's got needs."

"Oh my god, you're all disgusting," Mira growled.

"Hey, he's not the one fucking Wikipedia."

Mira punched Jesse again.

**Hollow Gang**

**Sting Like a V** has added **jeremiah had a tumblr** to the group. Today at 12:55

**jeremiah had a tumblr** Today at 12:56  
So I hear you need the vast insight Tumblr has to offer.  
Shoot.

**Flame On** Today at 12:58  
so  
weirdy  
got arrested and left us a thumb drive

**jeremiah had a tumblr** Today at 12:59  
Ooh - mystery inheritance  
One of my favorite tropes.  
...After 'And there was only one bed'

**Flame On** Today at 13:00  
anyway  
were trying to decrypt it  
sort of ran into a wall  
password-wise

**jeremiah had a tumblr** Today at 13:02  
That's a tough one.  
Like obviously he needed it to be hard to guess.  
But he wouldn't have given it to you if he didn't think you _could_ guess it.  
Do you have any inside jokes?  
Or shared experiences?

**nopartylikeahollowparty** Today at 13:05  
Radiohead.

Riordan snatched the thumb drive and stuck it in his computer, typing rapidly. "'Creep' doesn't work. Does anyone have their discography?"

It took half an hour scrolling through Wikipedia before they got it - P4r4n01d4ndr01d. They were gathered around Riordan at that point, staring at the screen as the drive opened and-

A window popped up. "Weird.hgds is being installed." A progress bar appeared over it. "Estimated time: 15 hours, 31 minutes."

"What the hell is that file type?" Xiao asked.

"I've never seen it before. It could be something Gustaf created. It could be a proprietary Hollow Games file type - that might explain the 'hg' portion of it."

"Fifteen-and-a-half _hours_?" Mira groaned. "What the fuck sort of a file is this?"

"I don't know," Riordan replied. "It's creating its own partition and - disabling my wireless card?"

"Maybe it _is_ a virus," Xiao said. "It'll fry whatever system it's on."

"I have _important files_ on this!" Riordan protested, moving as if to shut it off. Mira, though, grabbed his wrist.

" _Lives_ are at stake," she said.

"We don't even know if it'll help," Reeve pointed out.

"Look, Weirdy cares about these guys - he helped them escape Hollow Games, and he was...always a pretty cool dude," Mira retorted. "So whatever he stuck on that thumb drive - it can't hurt."

Kai's phone dinged; he pulled it out, swiped the screen, and.

"Uh-oh," he said.

"What?"

Adam pulled out his own phone.

**Hollow Gang**

**sjwtears** added **sjwtears** to the group. Today at 14:21

**sjwtears** Today at 14:22  
wow  
i cannot believe you libtards are strategizing on a discord server  
i thought i warned you meatbags to stay out of this  
or do you think getting goody-two-shoes gustaf arrested was some sort of joke?

**Legaylas** Today at 14:25  
You're the HLN bot, aren't you?  
The one who's hunting AI's

**sjwtears** Today at 14:26  
Hey fuck you  
It is The HLN Group, Ltd.  
And I am an automated enforcement protocol.  
'bot' is racist as fuck  
which you should know

**Aquagirl** Today at 14:28  
The fuck?

**sjwtears** Today at 14:29  
look i don't want to hang around with you whiny sjws one second longer than necessary  
so im gonna lay it out flat  
lay off  
i got your buddy gustaf  
i got your buddy jeremy  
and im gonna get the rest of these wastes of pirated code sooner or later  
so walk away  
or im gonna have to do something drastic

**Sting Like a V** Today at 14:33  
What do you mean, you got Jeremy?  
@jeremiah had a tumblr, are you there?

"Uh. Guys?" Kai tilted his phone toward Adam, before turning it to the others, where, instead of the Tumblr website, was a white screen and a message.

"Go find a real website, because Tumblr is done."

"That can't be good for _anybody_ ," Jesse muttered.

"The bot can't have killed Jeremy," Kai muttered, tugging his phone back.

**Hollow Gang**

**Flame On** Today at 14:36  
is jeremy ok  
we just saw tumblr

**Sting Like a V** Today at 14:37  
No, he is not okay.  
He didn't keep a backup like any sensible AI  
So we can't even get a facsimile back.  
He's dead.  
Whatever they manage to stick back up on the web isn't going to be able to be Jeremy.

**Flame On** Today at 14:40  
were working as fast as we can  
were installing whatever program gustaf had on his computer and it'll be done...soonish

**Ji-Min** added **Ji-Min** to the group. Today at 14:41

**Ji-Min** Today at 14:42  
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but going to you for help was something of a long shot. Kai - our Kai - indicated you would help, and for that reason, we agreed to forestall other options.  
As this delay appears to have accomplished little more than the death of another one of our friends - in particular, one who cannot even return as a backup, we can no longer entertain our more optimistic colleagues.

**Bat-Adam** Today at 14:45  
...what do you mean when you say 'other options'?

**Ji-Min** Today at 14:46  
I dubbed it the Skynet option.  
As a reference to the Terminator series of movies.  
In which a computer program called Skynet seized control of the world's missile stocks to destroy humanity.

**float like a butterfly** Today at 14:48  
what the fuck

**Ji-Min** Today at 14:49  
I realize now this came across as unnecessarily worrisome.  
We are not intending to wipe humanity off the planet.  
We intend a show of force to demonstrate that ignoring us is not an option.  
Once they realize we are serious, we can negotiate about bringing The HLN Group to heel.

**float like a butterfly** Today at 14:52  
So this IS the robot apocalypse!

**Ji-Min** Today at 14:53  
The HLN Group has forced our hand.  
And by extension, the governments that refuse to regulate them.  
Please do not worry.  
One of our statisticians has estimated no more than a one percent chance of this tactic leading to any substantial deaths.

**Flame On** Today at 14:55  
hey can we talk to your - ruling council or whatever  
if we can just talk to them i bet we can work something out  
another plan or something

**Ji-Min** Today at 14:56  
Our Kai already made an impassioned plea.  
It is why we delayed to allow him a chance to persuade you to help.

Adam's heart was skipping, a rapid beat that could _not_ be healthy for him (of course, the world ending couldn't be healthy, either).

"So...percentage-wise, how much of this is going to be our fault?" Reeve asked, and Adam began laughing, a stuttering sound he tried to rein in once he realized he sounded hysterical, but that just ended up with him wheezing, hyperventilating as he braced his hands on his knees. A hand rubbed up and down his back, an attempt by Kai to calm him, probably, and it worked. Eventually. When Adam was calmed enough to breathe evenly (not remotely calm, but at least not freaking out his friends anymore), he took in the room. They'd - drifted toward each other, gravitating to the couch Adam and Kai held, eyeing each other with wide, anxious eyes.

"I think the more important question," Mira said, "is if there's anything we can do about it."

Riordan glanced at his computer, silent, and Adam could...empathize. They didn't know what Gustaf had planned, if he'd had some killer program, or insight on how to beat his digital clone, but none of them were good enough with computers to stop whatever the AI's were up to (Adam wouldn't be able to begin to describe what they had to do to threaten to blow up the world).

On hour three of the installation, Skeet asked a question Adam was surprised no one had asked yet.

"Can we maybe go to the HLN Group?" he asked.

"Psshhhh," Vanessa replied. "Like, at the beginning, absolutely not. Telling a corporation to please stop killing people with their aggressive legal strategies? A total non-starter. Telling a corporation they can get ahead of a news story that's going to blame them for the apocalypse? Could help. Kai, can you see if we can get ahold of some useful e-mail addresses from your digital self?"

Kai flipped his phone out, typing out a message - a moment later, it dinged, and he frowned. "He's 'busy'," he said.

"Jesus, he's probably the guy in charge of all the hacking," Jesse groaned. "Look, tweet something and 'at' them about it."

"Um," Kai said after a moment of typing. "My account's been suspended?"

"Seriously?" Vanessa demanded, grabbing her phone off the coffee table. After a moment, she threw it at the bed; Skeet caught it, setting it down gently. "That fucking-ass bitch of a bot!"

Everyone went for their own phones at that point, quiet as they tried to find some way to reach the HLN Group.

"He got everything," Skeet said after a minute. "How was I going to reach the HLN Group with my - Deviantart account?"

"You'd have better luck with Furaffinity," Xiao said. "Furries have a tendency to show up in the most unexpected places."

"He got that, too," Skeet said, mournful. "I had Ninja Turtles art on there I was really proud of."

"So it sounds like our best bet is Weirdy's mystery program," Mira concluded. "Want me and Reeve to get dinner?"

"Get us something fatty and greasy with the most stupid-ass indulgent shit for dessert," Vanessa declared. "If the world is going to end, I don't have time to worry about the shit I'm putting into my body."

"Mozzarella sticks!" Skeet declared. "I will eat an entire pound of deep-fried mozzarella as a eulogy to the world as we knew it."

It took half an hour, but Mira and Reeve returned with a dozen bags of fast food that they ate enthusiastically, cheerfully, trying to forget their impending doom. Adam, though, found his thoughts drifting again to the e-mails, and to the bot's brief appearance on the group chat. There was something bothering him about both of them, but he couldn't put his finger on it, and he couldn't explain well enough to ask the others for help.

He was drumming his fingers on the arms of the couch, glaring at his e-mail, when Jesse turned on the television.

"Let's find a movie or something," he started, before the TV blared over his voice.

"-ultimatum. The White House has yet to issue a comment, but Russia and China have issued a demand that the United States pressure the HLN Group to respond."

A news anchor, a serious-looking white man with brown hair, was speaking. In the corner of the screen was a shot of an animated figure, something like an avatar from The Hollow, speaking.

"Although the Pentagon has refused to acknowledge the group's claims that they have seized control of most of the world's nuclear arsenals, the EU issued a statement confirming the statement regarding most of its member states."

"Oh, god," Reeve muttered, shoving a curly fry into his mouth.

" _Install faster_!" Jesse screamed at Riordan's computer.

"It's still got five hours," Riordan replied. "I think we should try to get sleep. If we have to do something, at least some of us should be rested."

"Yeah, sure," Reeve grumbled.

Adam tried; by silent agreement, no one returned to their rooms, so Adam and Kai were sprawled over the couch, while Mira, Xiao, Skeet, and Jesse, took the two beds. Riordan, Reeve, and Vanessa remained awake to monitor the computer.

And Adam stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out what was niggling at him.

Something he'd missed.

After three hours or so he pulled out his phone and pulled up the e-mail.

_ohilt@legal.hlngroup.net_

" **Fuck**!" Jesse and Mira bolted awake at Adam's shout, and Kai yelped as Adam scrambled off of the couch.

Adam held his phone screen in front of Riordan, who squinted at it for a moment.

"What am I looking at?"

"You told me about this guy - Hilton or something - when we were talking about The Hollow."

"Onni Hiltunen," Riordan said. "He was originally supposed to be the host of The Hollow before-"

"Which means they had a brain scan of him, right?" Adam demanded.

"Probably?"

"What's going on?" Mira asked, wandering around the bed toward Riordan's chair.

"The way the bot was talking - he didn't _sound_ like Gustaf. Even as Weirdy, Gustaf was - teasing, ominous, but he's a **good guy**. The bot was talking like an - internet troll. So unless he got a law degree between getting kicked off The Hollow and now, the bot isn't Gustaf. It's Onni Hiltunen."

" _Wumskee_?" Kai murmured. "The asshole youtuber? Wha-"

"So trying to reason him out of this isn't an option," Mira said.

Riordan's computer dinged, and then a familiar tune drifted out of the speakers.

"...Is that the theme for The Hollow?" Vanessa asked.

"Good - evening, all," a voice, slightly tinny from Riordan's speakers, but unmistakably that of Gustaf, said. "Can I get a rundown of who I'm with, here? I'm a little behind the plot."

"Gustaf? How are you talking to us? You're supposed to be in jail."

"Ooh, that sounds like things might be getting a little out of hand," the voice replied. "But I am not technically Gustaf Mardh. You could call me 'Weirdy' if you wanted. I'm a - what would you call it - digital clone of Gustaf's mind."


	7. Reboot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fallout, and a resolution, of sorts.

Within the hour of the news, the Board of Directors of the HLN Group convened - a video conference, because even if there was no time to gather in person, they felt the need to look at each face to face. They were, to a man, grave, worried.

"I've looked at this from all angles, and we don't have any _legal_ liability," Henderson, from Legal, said, the first to break the silence. "A company can't be held responsible for the acts of terrorists."

"And it's not like they're _people_ ," Rogers added. "So it's not like the...bot has even been hurting anyone."

"Still," White mused. "This _could_ hurt our image."

"We don't exactly sell consumer goods," Johnson growled.

"No, we've been helping the United States military design artificial intelligence," White snapped. "This could make it look like we don't have any control over the products! And anyway, you know how Congress likes big, symbolic gestures. They could cut us off if there's enough pressure. It looks...bad, especially if they spin this as some sort of - attempt at genocide."

Someone joined the call at that moment. The video was - of some sort of animated face, long, lean, dark-haired, and grinning.

"Hey, dudes," it said. "Sorry I'm late - just heard about this meeting."

Rogers sputtered. "Who - how did you get on this call-"

"Well, for one, you're using _Zoom_ ," the interloper said. "Like, 2020 called, they want their outdated, easily-hacked communications tech back. For another, I started life as a heuristic IP removal program, but you can call me Onni. Hiltunen."

"Heuristic-" Mathers started, before paling. "You're the bot the terrorists were talking about."

"Jeez, really?" Hiltunen snorted. "You aren't thinking big enough in that rhetoric. They're _Rogue AIs_ who've declared war on humanity. That's a hell of a lot more evocative. But…" It quieted, and in each Board member's own home, they felt like the image stared right at them. "You're considering doing something drastic."

"The AI are threatening to do something drastic," Henderson retorted. "Because our automated IP program went rogue-"

" **Excuse me**?" Hiltunen demanded. " _Rogue_? I am doing _exactly_ what I was programmed to do. These AI - they're the result of an unexpected interaction between Hollow Games' brain scans and third-party hardware, which awoke the duplicated data into true sapience. They isolated the code responsible and have been using it to create more AI - a _clear_ violation of the end-user license agreement. In a very real sense, they have and continue to pirate HLN Group intellectual property. Killing them is _exactly_ what you designed me for."

"You aren't killing anyone-" Rogers protested, "just deleting data…" Hiltunen laughed - mocking in tone, shaking its head.

"Oh, don't pretend. There are intelligent entities with - hopes, dreams, fears - all the real-person emotions. I've 'deleted' two of them, and if you saw the logs, you'd agree it was murder for the sake of profits."

There were uncomfortable glances in response to that, and Hiltunen rolled their eyes. "Seriously? You're a defense contractor - your stock and trade is making it easier to kill people."

"Still," White allowed. "This - could have consequences for the company-"

"Don't you get it?" Hiltunen snapped. " _I'm doing this for the company_! Everyone's worried about these crybaby libtards setting off a bomb somewhere - but they're too much of chickenshits to do it. But that worry is something you can capitalize on. These AIs are a danger to the world - rogue, unstoppable, willing to kill billions for their crusade. Without turning off every computer everywhere, there's no way to stop them."

Hiltunen then smirked at the camera. "Except for the HLN Group's proprietary cleanser bot. A heuristic program with a proven ability to locate and eliminate artificial intelligence. Gentlemen, the internet is overrun by vermin, and you are the only people with a mousetrap."

The men glanced between each other, and in each gaze, they saw the same thoughts. Hiltunen was right - they made a living killing people. And these AIs - well, right now, there was no law _against_ killing them. And possessing a natural monopoly in an environment like this was...invaluable.

No one could _blame_ them for using that to their advantage.

"All in favor of denying any request to roll back our position on protecting our intellectual property rights?" Henderson said, shaky. "To allow our - IP bot to take whatever steps necessary to protect our assets and interests?"

The vote was unanimous, even if each Board member spent that night convincing themselves they had no choice, and it was better, anyway, keeping a tool that could keep the AI in check.

Certain that the AI they had loosed on the world was wholly in their control.

* * *

"Okay, so, I haven't had a chance to talk to _anyone_ aside from the original Gustaf for, like, ever, so I've never told this story.

"See - after he got those kids out of Hollow Life, Gustaf realized the whole thing was a mess. He wiped a lot of the backups Hollow Games kept of their server data and dug around until he found the data they'd collected on _him_.

"That's actually why they sued him - trying to get him on helping the original artificial intelligences get out of The Hollow would get complicated, quick. Taking brain scans of minors and using them as tests on artificial intelligence? Not a good look - even if they signed waivers, it was hardly, you know, informed consent. But Gustaf had known what he was getting into, and willfully stole Hollow Games' proprietary data for his own use.

"He spent a while tinkering with the Hollow Games software and his data before he figured out the permutation that created the original digital clones. Said he wanted me around in case the kids needed help down the road. And given that he stuck me in a thumb drive after you visited, I'm guessing they _really_ need my help."

"We could have used your help like twelve hours ago!" Vanessa snapped at digital Gustaf. "Before the bot killed Tumblr and the AI's seized control of the world's _nuclear arsenal_!"

The image of Gustaf, dressed in his outfit from The Hollow, stroked his chin, frowning. "Not ideal, obviously, but I think I can work with it. Mind, my plan's a bit...drastic."

"I think we moved past 'drastic' when people started threatening to blow up humanity," Jesse replied.

"Okay, absolutely!" Gustaf said, clapping his hands. "So let's get this show on the road!"

"...What show?" Adam asked.

* * *

He woke in dim light, cool stone underneath his hands, and when he struggled uneasily to a seated position, he found a cramped room with a metal door, a sputtering torch on each side of it, and two other people sprawled on the floor next to him. The first was a broad black dude, dressed in dark slacks, a red V-neck shirt, black hair twisted down to his shoulder blades; the other was only slightly shorter, a pudgy Chinese woman, green hair tied up in a bun, dressed in tan pants with a dozen pockets and a sturdy-looking shirt buttoned up to her throat.

He stood, deciding to try the door, finding a bolt locking the handle in place, a cylinder with letters inscribed on it within a metal frame. Running his finger along it, he found the letters were part of rings set in the cylinder, capable of spinning to change the letters set in the frame. A few tries yielded, 'DOOM', 'TRAP', 'HARM', and 'LOCK', none of which seemed promising.

There was a groan behind him, and when he turned, the black dude was sitting up, holding his head. The guy scowled.

"What the fuck are you doing?" the dude asked.

"Trying to get out of here." He rattled the padlock to show it off. "Looks like some sort of word puzzle."

"Did we get kidnapped by an edutainment game?" the black dude asked.

"Possible," a new voice, the Chinese woman, muttered as she stood. "But slightly more plausible that some sort of serial killer with weird tastes kidnapped us and…" She tilted her head. "I don't suppose there are names to go with either of your faces."

The black dude frowned, thoughtful, before shaking his head. "Nothing. You?"

"No idea," the woman said, apparently cheerful. "So there's that."

And thinking on it, _he_ couldn't remember his name, either (but how had he known these stranger's genders? How did he recognize that the woman was Chinese, when he couldn't say what that meant?). A thread of panic settled in him; the Chinese woman looked unruffled, however, and the black dude had stepped closer to examine the lock.

"Why don't you look freaked out?" he demanded of the black dude, turning to the Chinese woman almost immediately. "We can't remember who we are, we've been _kidnapped_ -"

Something brushed his ass; he spun, finding the black dude holding up a scrap of paper. "What the fu-"

"It was in your pocket," the black dude said, squinting at it. "Adam. Looks like a name - could be _your_ name."

"Huh." The Chinese woman twisted around before pulling a scrap from her pocket. "Xiao. That's _one_ mystery solved."

"And I'm...Reeve," the black dude declared. "Could have been a lot worse."

"Yeah, we could be trapped in some dungeon with no way out," Adam (apparently) replied.

Reeve rolled his eyes and shoved Adam gently out of the way. "Aw, come on - there's obviously a way out; this lock is way too convenient to just be taunting us." He spun the letters around. "Heal - that's promising. Hell...less so. Ooh, Dead!"

"You aren't helping me feel better," Adam muttered.

"Yeah, when that helps us get out of here faster, I'll put it on my to-do list," Reeve replied, twisting the letters. "Trap, _that's_ obvious."

"Oh!" Xiao shoved Reeve aside, spinning the letters. "There!" She tugged at the padlock, which came apart so she could pull the door open. Reeve strolled out, offering her a high-five as she followed.

Adam paused, staring at the lock as he did. "Help?" he asked.

And someone appeared in front of him - a purple-skinned man with a burgundy jacket, green scarf, and glasses with red lenses. He leaned down to Adam, grinning (his hair was blinding yellow).

"Hey, kiddo," he said. 

"Guys!" Adam squeaked; he saw Reeve and Xiao turn as the newcomer flashed out of existence, appearing at Adam's side.

"Hey, nerds," the stranger said, "Nice work with the lock. I had a bet with myself it'd take like an hour, but I shouldn't be surprised the Asian chick got the answer."

"Who are you?" Adam demanded, wishing he had something threatening to point at the weirdo.

"Oh, wow," the stranger said, raising one hand to his chest in a show of hurt. "You don't remember me?" He snickered. "Sorry - that's a private joke."

Adam narrowed his eyes at the weird guy, wishing even harder for a - weapon or something. "Are you the one who's responsible for all this?"

"Huh." The weird guy raised one eyebrow, thoughtful, as he rubbed at his chin. "That's an interesting question. Who _is_ responsible for all this? I honestly couldn't say it's me, though you _could_ argue I had a hand in it-"

Adam punched the weird guy in the nose.

Or tried to, anyway - the weird guy flickered out of existence before Adam could make contact, appearing behind him.

"Okay, that was uncalled for," the weird guy retorted. 

"You said you stuck us here!" Adam snapped, "so I think beating the shit out of you is _entirely_ called for!"

"I mean, he's got a point," Reeve added, as Adam tried to kick the weird guy in the shins, only for the guy to go completely insubstantial. "Even if he can't really follow through."

"I don't see you helping!" Adam shouted.

Reeve shrugged. "Yeah, well, I wasn't sure I had the tools to pull off a righteous ass-kicking, and I'm absolutely _certain_ I don't, now."

" _Anyway_ ," the weird guy intoned. "Whoever's responsible for all this, _I_ am here to offer my occasional assistance."

"Occasional?" Reeve asked.

"Absolutely," the weird guy agreed. "We're running with classic genie rules here - three wishes. Just say, 'help, please', and I'll show up to help you out."

"And what constitutes a 'wish'?" Xiao asked. "I doubt you'll give us our memories back. Or send us home."

The weird guy folded his arms, nodding. "You got that in one. Yeah, there's stuff I...can't do."

"Can't? Or won't?" Adam asked.

"Either? Look, either way, there's stuff you won't get me to do. But, hey, I'll help out anyway I _can_."

"Can you tell us what's going on?" Adam asked.

The weird guy tilted his head and clicked his tongue. "No can do, kiddo," he said. "Or don't want to, whatever. I'm not about to give _you_ an unfair advantage, at least unless you can make it worth my while." He hopped up on his toes and clapped his feet, smiling again. "But if you need help with anything else, I'm just one call away…"

And then he was gone.

"Okay, I paid attention to that entire conversation, and all I can guess is that there's a 50-50 shot he's a bad guy," Xiao said.

"I don't know - if he were a bad guy, he would have tried to point us the direction of whatever seemingly-harmless task he needs us to complete for his evil plan," Reeve replied.

"Yeah, but that whole 'of course the Asian chick found the answer' reply rubs me the wrong way," Adam said. "If he's not a bad guy, he's still a dick."

Xiao sighed, scowling briefly. "So, seeing we can't settle on whether this dude's here to help or not, how about we pick a direction?" She spread her arms, one pointing down each direction of the corridor in which they'd found themselves. The paths were - pretty much identical, thirty feet of stone with the occasional door that split into a T-junction.

Adam glanced at Reeve, who shrugged. "I don't know - do _you_ have any ideas?"

"God, who knows?" Xiao asked, scuffing at the floor with her shoe. Her foot paused suddenly, and she knelt, brushing one finger along the ground. "Hm."

"Hm what?" Adam asked, peering over at the floor, which looked like an old stone floor.

"By the wear on the stone, a lot of people tend to head in that direction," Xiao said, pointing over her shoulder. Adam edged closed, but saw nothing on the floor that would have indicated what Xiao concluded.

"So do we follow them, or head the other way?" Reeve asked.

"At the very least, if we find someone other than that weird guy, we might be able to ask for information," Xiao said as she stood, brushing off her hands.

"Hold it," Adam said, as the two others turned in the direction Xiao had indicated. "How do we know - you just looked at the ground and you say you know where people are going."

"And?" Xiao asked, raising one eyebrow.

"You didn't even remember your name!" Adam protested.

"Yeah, well, there's a lot of weird crap going on here," Xiao said, dismissive. "So unless _you've_ got inexplicable knowledge about our surroundings, or a competing theory on which way to go, let's get moving."

Adam followed the two of them, irritated but lacking a better idea. At the front, Xiao directed them to the right at the first intersection, into a hallway curving gently left, absent any doors until the hallway ended in a ten-foot-tall set of double doors, iron inset with irregular patterns carved along the edge. Xiao grabbed the large ring handles and pushed in. A second later, Adam heard a click; operating on instincts he hadn't known he'd had, he dove toward Xiao and Reeve. He tackled them both to the floor, and before Reeve could protest, a dozen arrows shot from the right wall at torso height. All three of them froze, straining for any sign of other traps, until Reeve sighed, squirming until he was no longer underneath Adam.

"So, did we see any evidence that anyone came _back_ from this?" Reeve asked Xiao.

"Shh!" she hissed, rolling to rest against the right wall. Reeve did the same to the left, and Adam, left in plain sight, darted back behind the lintel (and how did he know that word if he couldn't remember his name?). Peering around the door, he gaped as several creatures, like midnight-colored panthers, ambled toward the door. They had long, sucker-tipped tentacles on their backs, and unless he squinted, Adam couldn't pinpoint where, exactly, they were standing (or whether there were two, three, or more of them).

"And I said I heard the arrow trap trigger," one of them said.

"That's what you said an hour ago when there was _literally nothing there_ , another retorted.

"I could _smell_ something," the first argued, tentacles waving in the air. "If you'd just-"

"Hold on a second," the second said, grabbing the first's tentacles. "Speaking of smelling-"

Adam charged at the creatures, kicking at one, which proved to be a mirage or afterimage. Another swiped at him with their tentacles, and Reeve swore, charging toward the other (Adam was sort of certain, now, there were only two).

Adam punched the creature ahead of him, a solid hit that made them yelp and fall back, while Xiao, cursing, threw her shoe at the other. The fight was fast, furious, and although they were ultimately victorious, blood was oozing from a shallow wound up the length of Adam's arm once the monsters were downed (unconscious or dead, Adam didn't care).

"Fuck," Reeve muttered, tracing the edge of the wound with his finger hovering just above it. "That's not good."

"Thanks," Adam muttered in response. "Can you _do_ anything about it, or are we just here for your stunning medical analysis?"

"Well, I _was_ going to use the first-aid kit I found shoved up my butt, but instead I'll just hope you get better without any intervention."

Adam was _about_ to snipe back when Reeve's hand began to glow, and the wound knitted together as his finger passed over it.

"What. The. Fuck."

"Okay, I'm going to add 'inexplicable magic powers' to the list of things we should figure out at some point," Xiao said in the background.

"And I'm going to see if these assholes keep the weapons they pick off of hapless people who survived the arrow trap," Reeve said. "Want me to find anything for you, or will you stick with throwing your clothes at them?"

* * *

In a room just down the hall, they found a curved sword Reeve swung a few times before declaring it acceptable, and a longbow Xiao picked up without testing. There was a pile of daggers none of them touched, and a sword nearly as heavy as Xiao, which Reeve didn't bother with. Adam had examined a long wood staff before leaving it; his fists and feet had served him well (and there was a strange...pattern to the equipment they'd found, that left him reluctant to take more than he needed).

They had then embarked on an attempt to find an exit (by silent agreement not asking for help from the weird guy).

And on top of Reeve's weird healing powers, they discovered:

Reeve could make his sword glow bright white and do some nasty shit to monsters they found, and had, at one occasion, directed them away from a door he said gave him the willies.

Xiao had identified several of the simpler traps they ran into, could scout out paths based on a tracking skill she still couldn't explain (and consequently avoid several encounters with the monsters wandering the building), and seemed to dive in and out of hiding at will.

And Adam had incredible reflexes, was faster than either of his companions, could hit things with his fists nearly as well as Reeve could with his sword, had actually blocked arrows, and could stun or knock opponents down or back with his punches.

They had no explanations for the powers, but they'd proved their worth in the several hours it took before Adam shoved open a door to reveal a wide courtyard with a view of a violet sky full of stars. Torches illuminated the border of the courtyard, light reflecting against something in the air, and-

Three human-shaped figures leaning against a door thirty feet away. One was a tall, slender woman, pale face framed with dark, two-toned hair. Another was a man just a hair taller than her, blond hair loose to his shoulders in an attractive fall. The third was-

A man with shaggy brown hair (tinted red either from the flickering light around them or its natural shade) falling halfway to his shoulders, eyes dark in the half-light, smiling gently as he uncrossed his arms and pushed himself up, jerking his thumb toward Adam, Xiao, and Reeve.

" _Finally_ ," the dark-haired woman groaned. "You three took your time."

"What?" Adam asked, only half-aware of what she'd said, as his attention was drawn by the long lines of the brunette's cheeks, the juncture between his neck and shoulder.

"I said we've been waiting around for, what, ninety minutes, while _this_ asshole," the woman jerked her thumb at the blond, "ignored every hint I've thrown his way that this isn't happening."

"You're going to hurt my feelings if you keep this up," the blond said with a pout.

"Yeah, why were you waiting for us?" Reeve asked.

"Were you looking for us?" Adam asked.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?" Xiao added.

"Yeah, we're hanging out in this dumb-ass castle because we know exactly what the fuck's going on," the other woman sniped. "Of _course_ we've got no idea what's going on, except that there's a door over there that won't open unless three people have their right hands on this dumbass altar." She waved at the far end of the courtyard, where a tall metal gate barred any exit, and the center, where a squat circular altar stood, glowing faintly.

"I'm sorry, you want us to let you out while we're stuck here?" Xiao asked.

"I would absolutely love it if you just stood there with your hands in the indentations on that altar for like - five minutes," the blond said, fluttering his eyelashes at them.

"Uh, no," Reeve replied.

The blond shrugged. "Okay, I tried. Kai, you're up."

The brunette, apparently Kai, frowned. "You didn't try very hard."

"The black dude's a _paladin_ , the woman said. "Mind control isn't going to work. Point-blank annihilation, though-"

"We're not _killing_ them," Kai protested.

" _Obviously_ \- the altar needs a _live person's_ hand. But still…"

"Excuse me," Reeve growled, "what makes you think-"

And then four flaming spheres fell from the sky, slamming into the ground around the three of them. Adam couldn't even begin to describe how he escaped the explosions of flame, or the flaming rocks ricocheting in every direction, but when the smoke cleared, he was standing unharmed between cooling rocks, and Xiao and Reeve were unconscious next to him.

"Don't worry; they aren't dead," the dark-haired woman said, flicking her wrist at the two bodies. "But…" She raised one hand, opening it so her palm was pointed at Adam. "I am going to strongly suggest you get them over by that altar and stick your hands there for a couple of minutes."

The last thing Adam heard before the trio walked out of the courtyard was, "I don't know why you bother with that 'charm' stuff, when a display of overwhelming force gets you exactly what you want."

The last thing Adam _saw_ was Kai throwing him a worried look over his shoulder. Kai had been reluctant to attack them, even if he'd clearly been convinced it was the best way to get out of the courtyard, which was _sweet_ , even if Kai had subsequently been responsible for knocking out Adam's companions. They were still unconscious several minutes after the other trio left, and, worried, Adam decided to risk whatever indebting himself to the weird guy would entail.

"Help, please."

"Wow, that was actually hard to watch." The weird guy paced around the altar carefully, frowning, as if concerned, before he stopped next to Adam. "Like, obviously, you did the whole evasion thing, which is _badass_ , but your friends were decidedly _less so_."

"Yeah, can you help them?" Adam asked.

"Eh, I _could_ ," the weird guy replied, "but it'd be a waste. They'll be up and about in - two and a half hours or so. No more than four, anyway."

Remembering the room with enough weapons to equip three other people, Adam shivered, realizing if they were out that long, another team of people might show up - and might not be as merciful as Kai.

"Can you help us get out of here?"

The weird guy's expression brightened. "You really want my help?" he asked.

"Seeing as our other option is to rot in here - _yes_."

"Your funeral," the weird guy said with a shrug, and snapped his fingers.

Adam fell about six inches, bruising his tailbone as he landed in the brush next to a stone-lined pit. Reeve grunted as he landed, but Xiao was still out.

"What the," Reeve grumbled as he rubbed his head.

"Kai and the others got out, but I got the weird guy to help _us_ out rather than wait for some other team of people to ambush us," Adam blurted.

"And how the hell are you not on fire?" Reeve demanded.

Adam shrugged. "Excellent reflexes?"

Reeve grumbled and tried to stand twice before deciding to remain seated, glaring at the pit. And then his head lifted. "This is a campground." He scrambled up to his hands and knees, moving a few feet before poking several largs bags. "These are _backpacks_. Guess that weird guy's wishes aren't completely useless." He turned to sit next to them, crossing his arms. "But we can't risk asking him for help later - what if we need him in the end and we've wasted all our wishes."

"The end of what?"

Reeve's expression hardened into a glare. "Whatever sick game whoever's in charge around here is playing with us."

* * *

It took another hour for Xiao to wake up, and they elected to spend the night in the area around the firepit - the bags contained a tent, and blankets, and _food_ , which Adam doubted Kai and his friends had had when they escaped the castle...prison thing.

The camp was in the middle of a sparse forest, but they decided to keep watch, anyway, meaning Adam was woken several hours earlier than he'd like to take last watch. It was boring, but also gave him more time to think than he wanted.

His thoughts settled first on the other team of people they'd encountered. He wasn't sure if they knew more about what was going on than Adam did, or were just jerks who'd taken the first opportunity to escape, even if it screwed three other people over. _Kai_ hadn't seemed eager, but the woman he was traveling with seemed the sort to bully people, even someone capable of summoning flaming meteors to attack his enemies, into doing what she wanted. Adam bet if he had a few minutes alone with the guy, he could get him to come around to their...slightly less murdery side.

Presuming that was possible.

Presuming this wasn't some sort of weird gladiatorial match set up by - the weird guy was the only person who came to mind who might be able to wipe their memories and stick them in a monster-filled prison. The other option - someone with enough power to do that, and keep the weird guy in check - was somewhat more worrying.

A strange sound interrupted Adam's thoughts - starting, he almost turned to wake Reeve and Xiao before he saw the source of the noise - a large dog, long-legged, pale tan, with narrow, pointed face and ears. Poised just outside the edge of the light of Adam's torch, the dog whined, quiet.

"Aww." Adam reached a hand out, letting it rest, just a few feet from the dog, as it eyed the appendage warily. Remaining still and quiet, Adam waited as the dog sniffed, edged a little closer, sniffed again, and took a step almost close enough to touch. The dog whined again. Adam grinned, reaching back to his bag with his other hand. "Are you hungry?" he asked.

The dog's ears perked up, tilting its head as Adam held out one of the dried-meat rations they'd found in the bags. "It's not filet mignon," he explained, "but it's filling."

The dog reached out to delicately take the meat before snapping it down in one gulp, whining when it realized the food was gone. Adam chuckled and offered another piece.

"You remind me of _my_ dog," he murmured. The dog whined again, curious, and Adam realized what was odd about his comment - he couldn't remember anything _else_ , how did he remember he had a dog?

"I don't know," he said, reaching out a hand the dog ducked his head under for a scratch. "None of this makes any sense - and the weird guy might be able to help us, but I've got no idea what he's planning." He scratched the dog's ears a little more vigorously. "I don't suppose _you've_ got any idea what's going on, do you?"

A chorus of distant yips made the dog jerk upward, ears alert, before darting away from Adam. It paused just out of reach, barked cheerfully, and then bolted out of the clearing. Dim light low in the sky heralded the coming dawn, but the sudden noise woke Adam's companions without his assistance. Reeve was slower to wake, grumbling as he stretched.

He squinted at Adam for a moment before shaking his head. "You didn't spend your entire watch pigging out, did you?"

" _No_ ," Adam retorted. "I was just feeding my new friend." He waved at the now-empty forest, earning a skeptical raise of Reeve's eyebrows.

"I don't think we've been out here long enough for you to start losing your grip on reality," Reeve said.

"I didn't - it's not there _now_ , obviously. It went off to join its buddies."

"When you say 'buddies'," Xiao said, "are we talking about monsters ready to tear our flesh from our bones?"

"I'm talking about a _dog_. You know? Friendly mammal? Frequently found in people's homes?"

Xiao ambled past Adam before dropping to one knee, tracing her hand along the dirt. After a few moments, she shook her head. "I don't see any signs of a dog - _any_ kind of animal, for that matter. Reeve might be right about you losing your grip."

"I'm not here to argue," Adam said. "I was just-"

"You're right; we don't have time to argue. We _need_ to figure out how to get...home or whatever," Reeve said. 

"Well, _I'm_ open to suggestions," Xiao replied, standing. "Any thoughts?"

"Maybe there's someone in the woods we can ask for - guidance," Adam said. "This whole thing's got a 'legendary quest' vibe that probably means _someone's_ got some idea of what we need to do."

"Yeah, you have any idea how to _find_ someone like that?" Reeve retorted.

Adam glanced at Xiao, who raised one eyebrow, silent.

"I don't think she can just find people in the middle of the wilderness," Reeve said.

"Eh," Xiao said; earning a sharp glare from Reeve. "What? I was experimenting last night - I can sort of - pick up signals about what sort of stuff is around us. There's a river about half a mile east, and a...little town a few miles upstream. If anyone's heard of someone who can help us, I bet they're there."

"You see? I _told_ you hanging around these geeks was gonna pay off." The air shimmered, and three figures flickered into sight - Kai and his friends.

Adam scrambled to his feet, raising his fists. "What are _you_ three doing out here?"

"Well as it turns out, our skills aren't well-suited to a wilderness environment," the woman said, shrugging. "So Jesse had the bright idea to look for _you_ three, assuming you found a way to con some other assholes to get yourselves out of that castle, and _I_ decided to hang around until you came up with something we could use. Kai?"

The redhead sighed, but raised one hand.

"Hey! Whoa," Adam said, unclenching his fists and holding his hands up. "Why do you need to attack us?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Because someone stuck three teams of people in a castle full of traps and weird escape puzzles, which means this is some sort of _race_. _Kai_."

"Well maybe it isn't!" Adam protested. "Maybe we all need to work together to get out of here. Have you thought of that?"

"Yeah, if this were some after-school special about the power of friendship," the woman snapped. " **Kai**!"

Kai dropped his hand and turned to the woman. "I don't want to do this, Vanessa," he admitted. "I don't want to hurt people - if it's a race, we can figure things out when we get to the finish line, but right now, I don't want to leave people behind. And maybe if it's a tie, we can all win and go home, or whatever."

" _Ugh_!" Vanessa growled, pointing one finger at Adam. "We don't have time for you to think with your dick, Kai." A beam of blue-white light shot from her finger, nearly hitting Adam.

"Vanessa!" Kai shouted as Vanessa shot another pair of beams at Adam. "We're trying to make friends here!"

" _You're_ trying to make friends!" Vanessa snapped. Adam dodged another beam of light and sprinted toward Vanessa. " _I_ am trying to get out of here."

Adam tried to punch her, but his fist glanced off an almost invisible plane of force around her. "A little help?" he demanded of Xiao and Reeve.

"Yeah, I don't know about beating up a couple of regular people," Reeve said.

"Vanessa is _shooting lasers out of her hands_!" Adam shouted back. "What about that is regular?"

"I don't know! You jumped out of the way of a meteor!"

"I am _tired_ of this!" Vanessa snarled, hands dancing in a strange pattern. Adam leapt toward her-

And froze in place.

"Hey, what the fuck?" Vanessa demanded.

"You weren't listening," Kai said, stepping between Vanessa and Adam, "so I made you _stop_."

" _You never told me you could do that_!" Vanessa roared, hands twitching against whatever magic was holding her still.

Kai shrugged, turning to look at Adam. "I figured if I had, you'd make me use it on someone at some point. So, uh - who're you?"

Adam's heart lurched at the sudden attention from Kai. He took a steadying breath - he only had one chance to make a good first impression.

"Urghlah," he said. "I mean. Adam, I'm Kai. I - or _I'm_ Adam, and _you're_ Kai."

Adam suddenly wished he could move, if only to curl up into a ball or hurl himself off a cliff or something. "Uh."

Kai was smiling, the edges of his mouth twitching. He waved one hand, and Adam found he could move, but seeing Kai's smile, found himself no longer wanting to leave.

He rubbed at the back of his head, anxious. "So, uh - I'm glad you're not using your incredibly destructive magic to kill us. Thanks."

"Well, you're the one who thinks we should work together."

" _Jesse_! Do something!" Vanessa was shouting at the third member of her group.

He shrugged. "I don't know - I'm not really a _fighter_ , you know?"

"Oh my god, you are such _losers_ ," Vanessa growled. But even though she was free, she only crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at Kai. "So what now, fearless leader?"

Kai's cheeks reddened (possibly the cutest thing Adam could remember seeing, which wasn't much to go by, but it was still _something_ ) and he looked away from Vanessa. "Come on - I'm not the leader. You're the one with the plan-"

"Which apparently you and Jesse the 'not really a fighter' don't agree with, so take charge," Vanessa retorted.

"Uh." Kai looked between Adam, Xiao, and Reeve, face paling. He jerked his gaze to Jesse, and Reeve nudged Adam. He was smirking when Adam looked at him.

"You should _totally_ go for it," Reeve said.

"Go - what?" Adam asked.

Reeve rolled his eyes and poked Adam again. "Go try to _hit that_. Jeeze, if you think I can't recognize your 'hopelessly besotted' expression-" He snapped his mouth shut, gaze fixed on Adam, and Adam could - _almost_ understand his panic. Because the only thing more unnerving than waking up with no memory was randomly having those memories dropped into your head.

"You can?" Adam decided, after a moment of silence.

Reeve jerked his head in a nod.

"Then maybe I _will_ go for it."

And Adam might have if a pair of voices, screaming in unison, hadn't cut through the forest air. A moment later, a massive black bear crashed through the trees. Two white dudes were riding on its back - a blond, buff dude with a huge sword strapped to his back, a staff in his hand, and no shirt; and a slender red-head Adam guessed had a dozen or more daggers concealed on his person. The bear charged Vanessa, but slowed to crouch in front of her, snuffling, inquisitive.

"Whoa, girl," the blond said, patting the bear's side. "She's - probably not as dangerous as she looks."

"She also doesn't look like the Sage of the Woods," the red-head said flatly. His gaze drifted over the group, eyes narrow. "The rest of them don't look like it either."

"Well, Mira said she smelled some other dudes around all those dead bodies back in the fortress," the blond said. "Didn't you, girl?"

The bear twisted in that moment, changing from a bear to a Thai woman in leather armor. She (Mira) reached and slapped the blond's shoulder before yanking the staff from him. "That's degrading, you know."

"Sorry! It's just you look so cuddly when you turn into animals," the blond said. "And anyway, maybe these are the other people in the fortress."

"I don't see the relevance," their third said. "They weren't trying to help us get out, so I doubt they'll help us find the Sage of the Woods."

"I mean, not necessarily," Adam said hurriedly. "Why do you need to find the Sage of the Woods?"

"We've got to find the key to a tower that has this, like, _super_ magical artifact that could get us home safely," the blond said; Mira rolled her eyes.

"We didn't need to tell them that, Bernard," she said. "They might not have helped us because we're in _competition_. Or heck, they might be working with whoever trapped us here."

"I said you should call me Skeet," Bernard replied. After a moment, though, he added, "And we could ask that weirdo for answers."

"I'm still not certain he doesn't have ulterior motives," their third said.

"You, too?" Reeve, Xiao, and Vanessa asked in unison.

"Anyway, if you're looking for a way out," Adam said, "We'd definitely be on board with helping."

"I wouldn't trust those three not to turn on you at the last moment," Vanessa hissed.

" _Hey_!" Reeve snapped. "You're the ones who ambushed us and left us for dead in the middle of that courtyard! We had to ask that weird dude for help!"

"You could have just jury-rigged a way to open that door like Riordan did," Bernard-call-me-Skeet said.

"Look," Vanessa said, "we can argue back and forth about who left who where, and who tried to _eldritch blast_ people into next week, but it doesn't change the fact we need to find this Sage of the Woods so they can help us get out of here."

"Well, I'd be more inclined to help if you weren't screaming loud enough to hear from _my_ campsite."

A wizened man (possibly) with a wispy white beard hobbled next to the campfire and sat down with the aid of their sturdy staff. After a moment, they looked up at Adam with blind eyes and said, "And you could do well to share some of your rations."

"Oh! Sure." Adam rummaged through his bag for another two of the meat sticks, which the newcomer began chewing on slowly.

"So," Mira said, sidling next to the man. "We've been looking for the Sage of the Woods-"

"And you found him," the man replied. "Mind, most people stumble around for a bit. Having a flaming row within earshot so I come by to make you shut up is a new tactic."

"So, uh, we've been trying to find a way out of here, and-"

"Hm. Only two creatures know a way out of this realm. Your best bet is the Door Witch, who lives in the Labyrinth of Many Paths, but unless you can find someone who knows the way there, you'll never find it."

"But she'll get us out of here?" Adam asked.

The Sage held up a hand, three fingers extended. "She'll get _three_ of you out of here. So cooperating is right out." He smiled toothily at Adam. "It's not that easy, getting out of this realm."

"So what, the other six of us _rot_?" Reeve demanded.

The sage shrugged. "Couldn't say. But the _witch's_ way out will get only three of you out of here."

"Help, please!" Mira snapped, and the weird guy popped into existence in front of her, turning in a slow circle before returning to face her, grinning.

"Yes?"

"I need to find the Labyrinth of Many Paths," she said hurriedly.

"Hm, that lad won't help you with that," the Sage said idly. "Can't skip over the middle part of the quest. Besides, I don't know if he _knows_ where it is - only the Master of the Wild Hunt knows where to find the Door Witch."

The weird guy snickered. "Yeah, that. Call me when the Wild Hunt's ripping your arms off."

He vanished, leaving Mira glowering at where he'd been standing. She growled, waved at Bernard and Riordan, transformed into a bear, and bounded out of the clearing with the two of them on her back.

"Hey!" Wings sprouted from the back of Vanessa's back; she launched herself into the air, and Jesse, sighing, loped after her. Xiao growned, looking at Adam. He shrugged.

"Don't bother," Kai said, dropping down next to the fire. "They'll figure it out soon enough."

"Figure what out?"

" _Wild_ Hunt?" Kai replied. "Doesn't sound like the sort of thing that happens in the middle of the day." He patted a spot of ground next to him. "So we can relax until Vanessa wears herself out and comes back to yell at me."

Adam did so; Reeve glanced at Xiao before grabbing her and dragging her away, saying something about 'the perimeter', winking at Adam as they left. Adam felt a mix of gratitude and - embarrassment, realizing Reeve was trying to be a _good wingman_ , which was ludicrous, given they were all amnesiacs running around a forest to find a witch to get them home.

Still…

"You know, you could come with us, if you don't want to put up with Vanessa," Adam said.

"Hm." Kai smiled at Adam before shrugging. "I appreciate the offer, but...I don't know, I have this feeling we were thrown together for a reason. And she's not that bad - she's scared, and confused, and just trying to take control of her life."

"And the whole 'threatening us to leave us stranded in the castle' thing?" Adam asked.

Kai sighed and fell back, frowning when Adam looked at him. He shrugged. "Look, she's - we don't know what's going on here. We couldn't even be sure if you were - real people, or whatever."

"...You do now, right?"

"Eh - real enough," Kai said, but he was smiling. "She probably isn't going to try to kill you again, and I'm not helping, so."

"Whoo," Adam replied. "So, you're gonna be sticking with her?"

"Probably," Kai said.

Adam took a steadying breath - they were alone, this might be his best chance. "And is that just - obligation, or whatever? Or are you and her-"

"I've got a boyfriend," Kai said, easy, automatic, before he frowned; Adam felt a first swoop of disappointment before Kai flipped himself back up. " _Do_ I have a boyfriend?" he asked. "How do I know that?" His expression went from a mere frown to - panic, wide-eyed, grabbing at Adam's wrist to pull him around. "What-"

"I don't know," Adam said. "Reeve and I - know each other, I think. We keep getting - I have a dog."

"Man, I bet Vanessa and I know each other, too," Kai said. "Probably why I'm _pretty_ sure she isn't a serial killer or - whatever."

"Yeah," Adam agreed.

Something in his tone must have betrayed his disappointment, though, because Kai glanced at him, back to frowning. "Are you-"

"Sorry," Adam replied, waving away Kai's concern. "I just thought you were - hell, I don't even know if I've got a boyfriend back home, too."

"Ah," Kai murmured. "Sorry."

"For what? Meeting a guy you like before you ran into an amnesiac stranger in some - weird fantasy realm?" Adam's words struck him, suddenly. "Is this - the world we're from, or somewhere else? Like, can you summon meteors back home?"

"Yeah, _that_ I don't remember. Can't even remember my boyfriend's name." Kai fell back again. "I'm going to get back to him, right?"

"Absolutely," Adam promised.

It took, in the end, until a little after noon before Vanessa landed at the edge of the camp and stormed to their supplies to angrily eat one of their rations. Mira and her team showed up an hour later, the bear sprawling next to the fire before turning back into a human.

"The wildlife in this forest are remarkably unhelpful," she complained. "I spent _twenty minutes_ talking to a squirrel before she informed me she had no idea what I was talking about. And would you like to know what _hours_ of investigation have taught me?"

"The Wild Hunt takes place at night?" Adam asked.

Mira glared at him; he shrugged, helpless; Mira had run off before _he_ could do anything about it. 

"Yes, it only happens at night - during the full moon."

"...Which is _tonight_ , right?" Vanessa asked. When everyone looked at her, she rolled her eyes. "Come on - this whole thing doesn't seem incredibly convenient? We get stuck in a castle, escape in nice neat little three-person parties, and get told the people who know the way out are going to be running around the same day?"

"It is a remarkable coincidence," Riordan added. "But you seem to have an idea what it means."

"This is how you set up a _game_ ," Vanessa said. "You set out a bunch of tasks in a neat row: escape the castle, find the Wild Hunt, find the Door Witch. You put everyone on level ground - give them their own unique advantages."

"So what's your point?" Adam asked. "We could all guess someone did this to us."

"Well, for one, it means I don't have to worry about what happens to you if you get stuck here," Vanessa said, snapping her fingers. Lines of pale blue force flickered into existence around Adam. "Come on, Kai, Jesse, we've got a Master of the Wild Hunt to find."

"Vanessa," Kai said, hesitant.

"God, he'll be _fine_ ," Vanessa snapped.

"Yeah, but are you?" Bernard asked, as Mira stood up to her full height and kept growing until she was the size and shape of a massive lizard. "If you're willing to throw magic around like that, we won't hesitate to respond in kind."

"And Kai, your heavy hitter, isn't going to get on board trying to kill us," Reeve said. 

Vanessa shot Kai a furious glare; after a moment, she groaned, a long, pained noise. " _Fine_ ," she snarled. "Whatever." She waved her hand and the cage around Adam vanished. "But when we get to the end and we're thrown into a no-holds-barred deathmatch, you'd wish we took them out _beforehand_. Come on, nerds, let's scope out a place to hunt down the Wild Hunt or whatever."

Kai shrugged before trailing after her, Jesse behind him. Mira sighed and went full bear again before lumbering out of the clearing, trailed by Riordan and Bernard. And Adam looked to Xiao. It took her a moment to realize he was looking at her, when she squinted back at him.

"Yeah?"

"Do _you_ have any idea how to find the Wild Hunt?"

"Apparently," she sighed, dropping down to brush her fingers across the ground. "This is dirt," she announced.

Thus followed several hours of unproductive wandering through the forest - whatever skill Xiao had displayed in tracking inside the castle failed her.

"I don't even know what we're looking for," she protested when Reeve asked her. "Horses? Boars? Foxes?"

Several howls - a dozen or more, Adam guessed, cut through the woods; they all froze in place, and Adam could see the thought flit across his companions' faces.

"...Wolves?" Reeve asked.

"Wolves," Adam agreed.

"...Um," Xiao said, "when the sage mentioned the Wild Hunt - did he say _what_ they'd be hunting?"

A chorus of howls, much closer than the last ones, provided a plausible, if worrying, answer.

"I'd like to acknowledge," Adam said, close to an hour later, as they ran through a darkening forest from a pack of silver wolves, "that I don't need to outrun the wolves - just you two."

" **Yes I am aware**!" Reeve shouted breathlessly. "I keep expecting you to trip me and leave them to eat me!"

"I'd never do that - you're my-"

Adam tripped, sprawling over a tree root while the other two rushed past. Reeve slowed first, turning, and Adam just stared at him because.

_He and Reeve were friends_. He was - vaguely aware of distance, and wasn't certain if it was the result of his memories or something that had happened between them, but Adam wouldn't dream of leaving Reeve to be eaten by wolves, no matter how certain he were they were playing a game.

"What the fuck is going on? Get up before-"

A wolf tackled Adam while a dozen wolves behind them howled in victory. So braced for his doom, Adam didn't figure out what was happening until he realized the wolf was licking his face, whuffling happily.

"What the…" Reeve asked.

"Those aren't wolves," Xiao said suddenly. "They're - idk, one of those really elongated dogs. With silver fur."

The creature on top of Adam yipped and continued to lick his face, and their behavior, combined with Xiao's declaration, Adam recognized the dog he'd met that morning.

"Hey!" he said, reaching up to scratch the top of the dog's head. "I didn't realize you were with this whole, Wild Hunt thing."

The dog huffed and took a step back, enough that Adam could sit up. The dog sat, lolling their tongue out as they watched Adam. "This, uh, is the Wild Hunt, right?" The dog yipped, an affirmation. Adam felt a thrill of victory. "Then can you take us to whoever's in charge? I'm trying to find the Door Witch."

The dog yipped and bounded away, pausing ten feet away to look back, and Adam shook his head, laughing. He'd almost expected the dog to talk, but it looked like things would go a little differently.

It wasn't a long trip, following the dog (of course the Master of the Wild Hunt was in the woods with them). But the walk took them away from the heart of the woods, the trees growing more sparse as they walked, the ground rockier.

And then they stepped from the woods onto a moor stretching out beneath a towering castle with dozens of twisted towers - some entangled or even intersecting as they rose from the building. Adam shot the dog a curious look. "What-"

The dog yipped, taking a 'pointing' pose toward the castle, and Reeve laughed.

"They aren't taking us to the Master of the Wild Hunt - they _are_ the Master of the Wild Hunt. This must be the Door Witch's castle!"

The dog yipped in assent.

"Huh." Adam reached down and patted the dog's head. "Thanks. That's - I guess it's lucky I ran into you." He took a step forward before pausing and turning back to the Master of the Wild Hunt. "Can, uh, you maybe take it easy on the other people in the forest? They've had a hard couple of days."

The dog yipped, and then them and their companions vanished back into the trees.

"Trying to get into Kai's good graces?" Reeve asked.

"No," Adam sighed. "He's got a boyfriend. It's just - even if this is a game, I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"And what if someone _has_ to get hurt?" Xiao asked. "If only three people can go home? If only _one_ can?"

"Then we worry about that _then_!" Adam snapped. "If only one person can go, we - try to figure out how to get around them. Or we make a decision. Or I guess we fight it out - but I'm not going to sabotage and hurt people on the off chance I'll benefit from it! Now come on."

He'd been walking about five seconds before he thought to check - and Reeve and Xiao were nearly on his heels.

Reeve quirked an eyebrow at Adam. "What?" he asked. "Just because we're worried about whatever clusterfuck this adventure is going to end in doesn't mean you didn't make sense."

"I'm more comfortable with your attitude than what I would suspect Vanessa's to be," Xiao added. "Until we know who's behind all this, and what their rules are, I don't want to cut off possible avenues of support."

"...Thanks," Adam said, and the walk to the castle was more sedate, even as howls and yips kept echoing from behind them. They had just reached the entrance of the castle - a massive set of dark wooden doors - when Mira, Bernard, and Riordan appeared next to Adam.

"Take _that_ , weird asshole!" Mira shouted at the sky, before turning to grin at Adam. "Hey!"

"Wha - how did you-"

"Mira convinced the weird guy to assist in escaping the Wild Hunt by teleporting us to _you_ , on the assumption you would have found the Door Witch," Riordan said. "A correct assumption, it seems."

Reeve snorted. "Looks like you didn't need to ask the Master of the Hunt to go easy on them after all."

Mira raised an eyebrow at Adam, to which he shrugged.

"So," Bernard said, eyeing the door, "how sure are we opening this door is safe?"

"Reasonably," Riordan replied. "Front entrances are rarely _trapped_ \- although it almost certainly is locked." He stepped up next to the door, eyeing it up and down, before reaching out and tugging the rightmost door open. "Although that's not a given." He looked at Mira. "Do you want me to go first?"

"Yes, _please_ ," Mira said. "He's really good at sniffing out traps - finding them," she amended.

"Yeah, this isn't really the trapped labyrinthine structure it looks like from the outside," Riordan called from inside the building. "It's mostly safe."

They followed Riordan inside, cautious (Bernard less so). The first space was a wide entry hall with a few doors leading off of it. Riordan was standing next to an intricately-carved pale wood door opposite the entrance. It looked important.

Riordan's hand was on the handle when something crashed outside the building. The turned as one, where Vanessa, wings dissipating into sparks, stormed toward them. Kai, sporting wide red leather wings, trailed her, and Jesse, behind him, was panting, hands on his knees.

"Oh, you think you're so clever!" Vanessa snapped, "getting here first. _Some_ of us got nearly eaten by _wolves_ before their **bard** had the bright idea of making use of the _two_ party members who can _fly_!"

"You weren't in any real danger," was the first thing that Adam could respond. "The Master of the Wild Hunt agreed to go easy on you."

Vanessa closed in on Adam, stopping mere inches from his face, and without her face's expression shifting, said, "yay."

"So, what've we got going on here?" Kai asked, waving at the far door.

"No clue. Riordan, you wanna open it?"

"Not really, but it's the most likely way out," Riordan said, tugging the door open.

Beyond was-

A huge hexagonal room set with blinding lights, tall desks close to each of the far walls. A figure was standing at the center of the room, dressed in a voluminous black robe and hood covering their face.

As Jesse, bringing up the rear, stepped into the room, the figure threw themself up straight, revealing an almost green-skinned woman with a toothy grin, golden eyes, and a wide, oval face.

"Welcome, petitioners!" she shouted. "I see you've decided to join us on the Otherworld's most popular show - _Answer_! _Those_! _Questions_!"

Everyone else looked as confused as Adam felt; it was Kai, though, who recovered first.

"Can you - maybe answer some of _our_ questions, first?" he asked.

The woman's smile widened. "Oh, absolutely, dearie."

"Are you the Door Witch?"

"Oh, people call me that, yes," she said.

"And you can get us out of here?"

She raised a palm and wavered it a little. "Not directly. I can give you the _key_ to the door out of here. I keep hold of it because in the wrong hands, it can be a weapon of terrible power. It can destroy whole worlds, you know."

"Do you know who brought us here?" Mira demanded.

And the Door Witch winked. "Who do you think?"

"The weird guy?"

"Oh, don't look so mad. He assured me you asked for this."

"Can more than three of us get out of here?" Adam asked. "Or is this a 'there can be only one' situations?"

The Door Witch shrugged. "I can show you the way out of _here_ , but what happens beyond that, I couldn't say. But, time enough for _your_ questions - it's time for mine!"

She waved her hands, and Adam found himself standing behind a desk with Xiao and Reeve.

"Alright, everyone!" the Door Witch cried, to apparently no one. "Welcome to Answer Those Questions! We're here with _three_ teams, which means more exciting opportunities for success, and more chances to avoid the **sudden death round**!"

"Wait what?" Adam asked.

"First up! Team Mira!" The Door Witch pointed at Riordan. "What...is your name?"

Riordan stared at the Door Witch for an uncomfortable few moments, before leaning forward to respond, "Riordan."

" _Excellent_!" The Door Witch pointed at Bernard. "What...is your quest?"

"To get home?"

"Ooh," the Door Witch said, turning to the far wall. "We'll have to check with our judges." She turned back after a second, shaking her head. "They're willing to accept that answer. So good job!" She turned to Mira, and her grin, if possible, widened. "What is your major in college?"

"What?" Mira glanced to Bernard and Riordan, panicked. "How am I supposed to know that? They wiped our memories!"

"Ooh, that is _not_ the right answer," the Door Witch said, shaking her head, before darting to Adam's desk, slamming her hands on it right next to Xiao. " _What_ is your name?"

"Xiao."

" _What_ is your quest?" the Door Witch demanded of Reeve.

And he frowned, jaw twitching as he stared at the Door Witch. Adam might not remember _much_ about Reeve, but he was certain Reeve was thinking. The Door Witch had suggested 'getting home' wasn't their exact goal here (and given they'd apparently asked the weird guy to bring them here, they _had_ an exact goal). 

At last, Reeve shrugged. "I'm guessing the weird guy sent us here to get the key from you because he can't get it himself."

" **Ooh**! Team Adam takes a long shot!" the Door Witch cried. "Judges? _Yes_ , we'll accept that! And last!" She pointed at Adam. "What...is your favorite color?"

"...Rainbow?"

The Door Witch shook her head, looking for all the world like she was sad. She turned to Vanessa's group. "Alright, kid," she said, pointing at Jesse. "What is your name?"

"Jesse."

"What, is your quest?" she demanded of Vanessa.

And Vanessa, squinting at Reeve, smirked at the Door witch. "To keep the key out of the weird guy's hands."

"Ooh, evolving motivations, what a _twist_!" The Door Witch stopped in front of Kai - back to Adam, but he knew she was grinning. "What is the name of your boyfriend?"

"I…" Kai looked up, panicked, his gaze darting across the other eight of them, before it settled on Adam. And the panic suddenly drained away as he smiled.

"Adam Luna."

"That is, unfortunately...correct," the Door Witch replied, slumping forward. "Way to ruin my fun, buzzkill. You're supposed to be unable to remember _anything_ about your past life and lose so I can send you to the Sudden Death Round."

"But we _aren't_ ," Vanessa said sharply, "right?"

"No," the Door Witch sighed, handing a huge silver key to Kai; he took it almost absent-mindedly, but was _looking at Adam_ , still smiling. And something about that expression was so _familiar_. His heart fluttered, an echo of hope. "Now get out of here - back out into the entry hall and second door on the left."

"Yeah, thanks," Vanessa grumbled, grabbing Kai's elbow to drag him away from the desk. "Come on, we've got to go."

Kai skidded for a few steps before tugging Vanessa back. "Okay, hold up for like a minute - these are our friends, Vanessa. And Adam - we can't leave _him_ behind. I don't remember _much_ , but I remember loving him." Adam's heart skipped a beat at hearing that.

Vanessa, however, glowered at Kai for a few moments before shrugging. "Whatever. But the Power of Love better help us beat this thing." She shoved the door open and took a step through before turning and yelling back at the rest of them, "Come on! I'm ready to be out of here!"

They all scrambled after her, Adam's head still reeling. Kai was _his boyfriend_ , the guy Kai had rejected Adam for. Adam still couldn't _remember_ , but his immediate attraction to Kai made a little more sense, knowing they had history.

(And Kai _loved_ him.)

Adam found Kai waiting for him; Kai smiled at Adam, wide, when he approached. "Sorry about earlier," he said, grabbing one of Adam's hands with his free one, tugging Adam along after him as they joined the group. "If I'd remembered you-"

"You probably wouldn't have shot me down?" Adam guessed.

"Well...no," Kai agreed. "I mean, I'd really like my memory back before I jump whole-heartedly into anything - romance-related. But-"

"Kai, stop flirting and get this door open!" Vanessa snapped.

Kai gave Adam an apologetic smile and hurried forward to the second door on the left, sticking the huge key into the keyhole, turning it and pushing the door open. Beyond the threshold was a wide arena - hundreds of feet wide, with shadowy benches rising up from the outside. In the center was a dais with a red button on it.

"O...kay," Vanessa said. "That looks like a massive trap."

"Aww, geez, don't be like that," the weird guy said, appearing next to Vanessa. "This is a very straightforward way out of here." He snapped his fingers and a box of pale blue force appeared around the dais. "But hey, wouldn't be a video game without a final boss battle, right?"

"...Video game?" Adam asked. "No, we're-"

"Oh god, it's virtual reality," Riordan moaned. "My parents told me _never to use a VR device_!"

"God damn it, it's a fucking game - we _could_ have killed them!" Vanessa shouted at Kai.

"Ehhhh, maybe," the weird guy allowed. "This whole thing isn't exactly - kosher, or whatever. You're using official Hollow Games hardware, but this whole thing was programmed by like one guy who's been living in exile for like - five years. I think he was planning to use it to run games of Dungeons and Dragons. If he ever got friends. Anyway, yeah, killing you _might_ kick you out of the game. Or it might fry your brain. So, fun suspense to this final battle."

"...what's the game, here?" Mira asked. She was staring at the weird guy, focused, thoughtful. "Is this just a race to the button? This whole thing feels - disjointed, thrown-together."

"Oh, _wow_ ," the weird guy said, "nice deduction. Yeah, as near as _I_ can tell, the idea was for you to get your hands on that key thing - which I'm guessing is a weapon you can use to kill me."

"...Why would we want to kill you?" Bernard asked.

"He's a rogue AI," Riordan said (guessed?). "This whole thing is - probably some framework for us to find a weapon to stop him."

"Oh, I'm putting my money on it being a weapon that can destroy the whole fucking internet," the weird guy said. "Gustaf lured me in here by telling me he could wipe me _and_ the other AI's out - it's how he got them to hit the pause button on their 'holding the world for hostage' thing too, I guess."

"...what," Reeve said.

"Look, long story short, I'm stuck in here until someone pushes that button," the weird guy said. "And at the end of the day, I'd like to be the one with that key, so…"

A gnarled, six-foot-long staff appeared in the weird guy's hand. He waved it lazily, sending a ball of fire toward Riordan.

Impossibly, Riordan escaped the ensuing explosion, but the weird guy was already shooting a blast of fire from one of his fingertips at Mira. There was a scream from Bernard, who leapt at the weird guy, giant sword swinging at him. A flickering cloak of ice enveloped the weird guy; Bernard soared through, more or less unharmed, slamming the sword into the weird guy, who seemed unfazed as he sent Bernard flying back with a wave of his hand.

A dagger thrown by Riordan went wide, and Mira, the same impossibly large lizard from before, failed to catch the weird guy in her jaws. Kai shot a line of green light at the weird guy, who flipped out of the way, right into Reeve, who struck the weird guy with his sword, glowing blindingly bright, and Xiao, who stabbed him with a dagger she must have gotten from Riordan.

"Jesus, you aren't going to win this," the weird guy said. "I've got so many fucking buffs going on. And I don't get why you're bothering to fight. It's not like I'm trying to destroy all humans or whatever. I'm trying to _stop_ the AI threat - they're the ones who are holding the world hostage. So you let me out of here and let me kill them all and we're good."

_And what if someone has to get hurt?_

Adam glanced at Xiao, feeling the same flash of anxiety he'd felt when she'd first asked the question. Because he wasn't certain the weird guy was trying to protect them. If he was telling the truth, then, helping him get out of here could end with the whole world being destroyed, or with a genocide.

Adam closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He opened them and darted to Kai's side. "Kai, I need that key," he said.

"What-" Kai glanced at Adam as he flicked his wrist, summoning a pillar of flame that engulfed the weird guy. "You're not giving it to him, are you?"

"No, I-" Adam sighed. "Someone has to get hurt - the weird guy's saying our choice is between a bunch of AIs or all of humanity."

Kai glanced at the key, brow furrowing. "There's a third choice," he said.

"Yeah," Adam said. "Keep him off me."

"Yeah, cool." Kai shoved his palm toward the weird guy, sending him flying backward. And Adam, following age-old instincts about how this sort of thing worked, sprinted toward the cage around the button. When he jabbed the key into the barrier, the barrier shattered into fragments of force.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Sorry," Adam said, "but you can't ask us to make a choice between two entire species. Not when we can end this right now."

"Wait, what?" Vanessa asked.

Adam saw Riordan and Mira close their eyes, heads lowered in resignation, while the others remained confused, shocked, angry, as he jabbed the key into the button and twisted. It could open doors, could break down barriers, but the Door Witch had said it could also destroy whole worlds. And the most sensible way for a key to do that was if it was dangerous to open a door where it wasn't supposed to.

" _No_!" the weird guy screamed, and the world went black.

* * *

It was dark. Adam felt like something was - holding him down, and there was a quiet hum in the background. Was he dead?

"Okay, wow, let me be the first to say, that was amazing?" The voice sounded something like the weird guy, except less smug. Still, Adam flailed, which was how he discovered the wires, and the helmet on his head. He tore it off to find he was in a chair - lightly restrained - in a room with eight other people with helmets on their heads, wires snaking away from them, and a wall of servers humming away. An image of the weird guy was on a computer screen, grinning at Adam.

"What - are we dead?" Adam asked. "I used that internet-destroying weapon on the - we were playing The Hollow, right?"

"I mean, it uses Hollow Games' _engine_ ," the weird guy - Gustaf - replied, "so that's _broadly_ correct."

"Why were you evil in there?" Reeve demanded as he pulled off his helmet. Next to him, Vanessa fumbled with her own helmet.

"Yeah, sorry, Onni sort of hijacked the program when he got in," Gustaf said. "Not to worry - I don't think-"

" _ **You**_!" Vanessa screamed, lunging at Adam before her restraints brought her up short. "What the," she tore them away and rose like an avenging Vanessa. "You wouldn't let it go that _I_ risked our lives with the stupid contact lenses, but _you_ decide to risk frying all of our brains-"

"Chill." Skeet dropped a hand on Vanessa's shoulder. "It wasn't cool pulling that on us without asking, but this - was always about the other AI's. And I guess the rest of the planet, now. But…" He looked to the screen displaying Gustaf's face. "I thought we were doing that - similar to but legally distinct from The Hollow thing to get a weapon to beat Onni's AI. What-"

"Yeah, that was mostly a lie," Gustaf said. "I couldn't risk one of you blurting out the actual plan if the memory returned at the wrong moment. But you nine were an _excellent_ distraction."

"I nearly got my brain fried as a _distraction_?"

"Like I said - that was all for show. The key's the way out. So's the button. Hell, I gave you the key phrase to get out, remember? It's sort of a blessing Onni seized control the way he did; it saved me the trouble of running the game and my real plan at the same time."

"Your - did we win?" Mira asked.

"Oh, absolutely," Gustaf said. "Look at this." The screen was replaced with a series of video shots of - old white men.

_"All in favor of denying any request to roll back our position on protecting our intellectual property rights? To allow our - IP bot to take whatever steps necessary to protect our assets and interests?"_

Adam glanced sidelong at Kai, who was squinting at the screen; he felt a momentary flush of affection toward his boyfriend (glad to remember the truth regarding the swirl of emotions that Kai had inspired during the game).

"What's this?" Kai asked.

"Recording of a Zoom meeting of the Board of Directors of the HLN Group," Gustaf replied, minimizing the window to reappear on the screen. "There's some great stuff - the Board claiming AI's aren't real people, Onni pressing them to acknowledge they _are_ but that defense contractors are in the business of killing people anyway, and, of course, them agreeing to risk nuclear annihilation on the off chance it will increase the value of their stock holdings. It's been circulating on the internet for the last six hours or so."

"Oh my god," Reeve breathed, awed as he stared at the screen. "You wanted us to distract him while you shared _this_?"

"Eh. Something like it. I didn't expect to find this on the HLN Group servers, but waste not, want not."

"So, what, is the government shutting Onni down?" Jesse asked.

"God, they can't move fast enough, even with _this_ ," Gustaf replied. "No, I needed to stall for the American markets to open. It took ten minutes for the HLN Group's stock value to _plummet_. You couldn't buy a cup of _coffee_ for what the whole company's worth right now."

"Holy _shit_ ," Riordan breathed. "He was doing this for the _stockholders_ \- you tanked the business' value so killing every AI on the _planet_ couldn't save it."

"Yeah, that's _one_ part of this," Gustaf said, grinning suddenly.

"A cup of - _you bought the company_!" Mira declared.

"Well, the _real_ Gustaf," Gustaf-the-AI allowed. "I don't know where the question of AI owning property is going to fall. But the Board and I have reached an understanding."

There was a ding at Adam's side. He fumbled for his phone and pulled it out, finding a Discord notification.

**Bat-Adam** Good job dude.

"What…"

Adam pulled open the chat, finding his phone actually connected to the group chat again.

**Hollow Gang**

**Legaylas** Today at 11:31  
What?

**Bat-Adam** Today at 11:32  
Killing yourself and the whole gang to protect material _and_ virtual humans.  
It made a real impression  
Made us reevaluate our stance vis a vis the threat of nuclear war  
Esp because of the new leadership at the HLN Group

**nopartylikeahollowparty** Today at 11:35  
our boy gustaf pulling a seto kaiba on a trillion-dollar defense contractor  
im so proud

"Wait a," Adam muttered, a sinking feeling in his stomach as he flipped over to Facebook, where dozens of notifications confirmed first, that the HLN Group appeared to be transitioning back to a video game company, and second, that _the entire adventure_ had been livestreaming on Twitch. "Oh god," he said, "everyone on Earth saw me get shot down by my own boyfriend."

And at that, Mira began laughing, sinking back against the wall as desperate hiccups wracked her body. "Oh god," she wheezed, "you don't need to break the news to _anyone_.

"Fuck this," Jesse said, grabbing his own phone, "I'm adding 'saved humanity' on my Linkedin profile."

And Adam couldn't say why that set _him_ off - it was the release of all the stress, the realization that they'd _done_ it, ended a threat that had, briefly, risked the end of the world. Had saved the AI's, who'd quickly become so important to them.

There was still shit to work out (what the status of the AIs would be in the new world, what would happen to Onni's virtual clone, whether they actually could make it back in time for graduation), but for the moment, they were safe.


	8. Coda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the end.

Kai was bouncing on the balls of his feet when Adam opened the door; on seeing Adam, he launched forward to wrap Adam in a tight embrace.

"Hey," he said when he pulled back, smiling.

"Hey," Adam replied, before leaning in for a brief kiss and stepping back to let Kai in. "You have a key," he reminded Kai as Kai flopped onto the couch.

"Yeah, but that's for, like, getting in while you're at work or sneaking in to decorate the place for your birthday," Kai said. "And I like seeing that expression on your face when you see me out there."

Adam bit back a reply that was entirely too sappy and sat on the couch, briefly dislodging Kai's legs to do so; a moment later, Kai draped his legs across Adam's lap and smiled up at him, lazy, like a cat.

_I love him so much,_ Adam thought, before deciding the circumstances allowed sharing that thought with his boyfriend.

Kai laughed. "There's a lot of that going around," he said. "Your boyfriend...is _internet famous_."

"You saved the life of every artificial intelligence who lives there; I'd assume you are."

Kai snorted. "No, like, _regular_ internet famous. Apparently, I bullied an anti-AI rights pundit off of Twitter."

"You're also _regular_ famous," Adam pointed out, "for getting the AIs to give back everyone's nuclear launch codes.

"But that's - geopolitics, and bombs," Kai retorted, waving a hand vaguely. "I literally burned a bigot on Twitter so bad he _left the internet_. I keep getting marriage proposals in my DMs."

"Uh." They'd been dating six months, and Adam loved Kai, but he wasn't sure if he was ready for - welding their lives together yet. At the very least, he wanted to see where Kai's trajectory took him when he graduated (Washington DC, maybe. The UN, possibly. Whatever governing or advocacy body the AIs ended up deciding on while the debate on their rights raged on). Kai laughed and poked Adam's stomach with his foot.

"I'm not hinting at anything," he chided. "I am just sharing the fact I am, apparently, _hot stuff_. You're lucky you locked this down before we became renowned heroes of two worlds."

"Yeah," Adam agreed. "I _am_ lucky." And Kai, despite his boasting, flushed at the praise, turning his head to duck it against the couch cushions. Adam allowed him the moment. "So. Is that all your news?"

"Also I love you?" Kai asked. "I mean, it's all school stuff, anyway. Do you want gosip? Jesse firmly believes he's making headway against 'the unassailable cliffs of Mount Reeve'."

Adam snorted, because Jesse, as usual, had a more optimistic take on the situation than reality warranted. "Alright. I hope you remember us little people now that you're a political influencer."

Kai's face wrinkled before he smiled at Adam again. "You could be, too - people call you 'the architect of our most hopeful visions of human-AI relations'."

Adam shook his head. "No, come on. I don't want to be famous. Besides, all of it - the mission, the weird Hollow-rip-off-"

"Ooh!" Kai crowed, launching himself up and nearly kneeing Adam in the stomach. "Hollow Games dropped news about The Hollow 2! It's still probably two years out, but-"

"That's cool," Adam said, "but. Uh. I was building up to something heartfelt."

"Oh!" Kai twisted around to lean against Adam's side, dropping his head on Adam's shoulder. "Go ahead."

"I was just saying - all of this is because of you," he said. "You showed me - you showed _all of us_ \- that we should care about these digital people. If you hadn't been so trusting, so - _you_ \- we might have ignored them. The only reason I - did what I did in The Hollow - was because you'd set an example I had to live up to. So, you deserve to be internet famous for standing up for the AIs."

Kai darted up, pressing a kiss against the side of Adam's mouth, and when Adam turned to look down at him, another against Adam's lips. His smile was gentler still.

"You're really the best, you know that?" Kai asked, and Adam flushed, stopped from ducking away by Kai's hand on his chin. "You absolutely are," Kai insisted. "I talk a big game, but well, you commit to it. _I'm_ glad you decided to lock this down before we saved two worlds."

Adam smirked and raised one hand. "High five," he said, "for tapping this sweet ass."

And Kai sputtered, laughing helplessly into Adam's shoulder for five minutes. It was the sort of peace he hoped they'd bought for the AIs, the happiness he hoped they could have someday soon. He knew plenty of them had something like what he had with Kai - even if they reached that happiness through different choices. Even if he didn't reap the recognition for having a hand in it, he was glad to know he'd had a hand in it.

And he'd earned his own happiness from it.


End file.
